them one by one by degrees He hath brought us from repetition of the word and from singing of Psalms and many from baptizing of the infants of the godly and divers from the supper of the Lord and from hearing the word of God preached and now he comes and begins to bring people from praying or calling upon the name of the Lord therefore let us do as Rehoboam did when he had lost Ten Tribes he went and strengthened the two that remained Beloved there are but a few ordinances that remaine and they are almost gone too therefore let us do our best to keep those One is praying or calling upon God which our Lord Christ divers ways by precept and example and parables c. doth exhort his Disciples to to pray alway and not to faint So that this is it that you should do well to consider that Prayer or calling upon the name of God in Christ is an ordinance and a perpetuall ordinance of God And though it may be many of you do not doubt of it and therefore you think why should I speak of it Truly no more did not I doubt of it yet I have had many thoughts of it and though we doubt not of it yet the considering of it out of the word may stir us up to do it more then we do for I am afraid though many of you doubt not of it yet many of you are slack and though you believe not what the others say yet you hearken so much to them as to slacken of what the old Saints did and of what your selves did before you do not set your selves so earnestly and so frequently and follow God so hard in prayer as you have done this I greatly fear For I find many times that the devill plays a double game that when he comes to take away an ordinance from people to cheat them of it he knowes that some are so giddy that he can gull and cheat them clearly and he knows this that those that he cannot cheat yet he can cast them into a kinde of remisnesse As for instance he hath taken away from many singing of Psalms prasing God according to that manner that the Saints have had for divers ages whereas there is no particular manner in the scriptures for the outward thing now as he hath brought many that they will not sing at all so there are many that are indifferent and so for baptising the infants of the godly and so for hearing the Word and so for praying The devil hath a dilemma if you will do so so it is or else do this so I say while some giddy heads or hearts are throwing away the Ordinance of prayer I am afraid there is a general remisness or carelesness growing upon your hearts therefore I shall shew these two things concerning prayer First I shall shew you that it is an Ordinance of God Prayer an Ordinance of God Prayer a perpetual duty that it is a duty that it is the duty of a Saint Secondly I shall shew you that it is a lasting duty a duty to be performed in all ages untill the coming of Christ and that briefly and plainly For the first That it is a duty consider any duty in the world and whatsoever you would have to prove it a duty I dare say it is clear in the Word concerning this duty of Prayer that and much more you cannot name any duty in the Book of God any external duty that is underpropped that hath such foundations such clear ground-works for it as the duty of Prayer There are four main grounds of duty and one of Four main grounds of dutie them many times is a sufficient ground for any one as First that it is a thing that the law of Nature hath 1. The 〈◊〉 of Nature written in the heart of man to call upon God it was written in the Creation There are many duties among us that are not so under the Gospel especially Now that you see in all ages all kinde of people call upon the name of their God As in the ship where Jonah was the Heathens by the dictates of Nature they awake Ionah to call on his God and they were calling on their god it is a thing in the law of Nature And by the By that is the reason why we may pray with carnal men though we may not receive the Lords Supper because the Supper of the Lord is an Ordinance by institution the other is a natural Ordinance or duty Now when a man doth a Natural duty it is supposed that it is in the heart of a wicked man and he doth but what he ought when he doth it A carnal man when he prays he sins not in that he prays much less do I sin in doing the duty with him in doing what he ought But wherein doth he sin In the maner that he prays without faith it is his fault and not mine and so an hypocrite that prayeth without faith when I do the duty I look that the thing be good but for the maner of his heart and spirit that is for him to look to So a man may pray with carnal people though he may not receive the Supper of the Lord because that is an Ordinance by institution and is onely for the Saints That by the by Secondly There is this ground for it for prayer 2. Command of the Word we have more precepts then for any other dutie Christ Jesus saith here Pray always And the Apostle 1 Thes 5. he bids us pray evermore pray alway I need not stand to prove this Then you have also presidents for it almost in every 3. President and Example Saint in the Book of God you seldom hear of a Saint but he was a praying Saint And let me tell you this that Saints and Churches or Assemblies for so the Greek word is indifferently and people that call on God with a pure heart they are Synonomies Sometimes Paul saith Grace mercy and peace to the Saints sometimes to the Churches and sometimes to those that pray and call on the name of the Lord Iesus 1 Cor. 1. 1. It is a thing so proper to a Saint that it is usually taken for the description of a Saint Therefore in Zech. 12. where there is a Prophesie concerning the conversion of the Iews saith God I will poure on them the Spirit of Grace and Supplication What is that That is they shall be converted To have a spirit of Supplication a praying heart is the same as conversion to convert the Iews is to give them a spirit of Grace and Supplication As soon as Paul was converted Act. 9. when Ananias inquired of him he was praying therefore you have examples enow 4. Promises entailed on it Psalm 50. And then you have Precepts for it and Promises to it all along in the Book of God Call upon me in the time of trouble and I will deliver thee So in the new Testament
1. In dictating a world of prayers to us that you may see the greatness of his power what a world of prayers doth the Spirit of God put into thy heart that thou art never able to utter with thy mouth All the wisdom in the world cannot make one spiritual petition we may make forms of Prayer but now the Spirit of God that knoweth the minde of God as the Apostle saith that maketh prayers according to the will of God and he prayes with sighs and groans unutterable I speak to them that know the working of the Spirit how many thousand prayers doth God put into thy heart that it is impossible for thee to utter with thy mouth Thou canst not speak to God one petition of fourty that the Spirit puts into thy heart That some conceive to be the meaning of that in Rom. 8. The Spirit prays with sighes unutterable not because of our weakness but because of their strength and they are so numerous they are so many that when a poor Saint goes to pray one petition stops another and throngs it out that he cannot utter it If the Lord should hear only those prayers that thou makest with thy mouth thou wouldest be but a poor man but the Lord respects the prayers of the heart Therefore I say to have power to make one prayer and to have such innumerable sighes and groans in the soul too it must be an exceeding great power Secondly consider this how much the Spirit of 2. In supplying us when we pray not God doth for thee and in thee that thou never prayedst for nor never couldest pray for no not so much as in heart If the Lord did answer all the prayers of heart and tongue that we make throughout all the year a man would think that were a great matter but surely they are so few considering our wants and they are so confused and blinde that I am confident if God should deal with thy soul and mine according to our prayers all the year we should be miserable creatures all our lives God exerciseth us to pray and many of them he answers in their kinde and he is pleased with our obedience in every thing but surely God hath a higher rule of doing us good and the Spirit of God works in a more methodicall and wise and merciful and blessed way then we can pray I have sometimes wondred that God hath made promises to answer many prayers that we make but I wonder more that God should grant things that we pray not for This is the exceeding greatness of his power Thirdly consider the exceeding greatness of his 3. By teaching us inwardly power in this respect in his teaching how the Spirit of God teacheth his people and servants he teacheth them above what they are taught outwardly by men As thus Cast with thy self suppose thou hadst every Sermon that thou hast heard in thy life and every Lecture that thou hast heard on the week days and on the Lords day that thou hadst them in order and method suppose they were written in thy heart and fresh in thy memory that thou didst understanding and remember every Sermon that thou hast heard which no man doth a man would think such a one to be a very knowing man Truly if thou hadst it so thou mightest be a miserable confused blinde man for all that for all that ever thou hast heard preached thou mightest be a blinde creature for alas our teaching comes with so much weakness and dross with it and one saith and another unsaith and if we consider it in a natural way we shall never be made knowing men by all outward teaching in the world But now the Spirit of God comes in and he is pleased indeed to make use of it that we shall teach outwardly but alas the Spirit of God reads such a Lecture in the heart of a Saint and clears things and orders things and assures things and settles things that are right and discovers things that are not and inlargeth and sweetens and quickens them that it may be a man in hearing one Sermon of an hour long may be taught more then another man in hearing Sermons seven years together This is the exceeding greatness of the power of the Spirit of God that truly beloved I have often thought with my self I speak not to disparage our teaching and your hearing but our coming to teach and you to hear it is as your sending your little children to School to keep their cloaths clean and to keep them from play they learn nothing in a manner for your money onely they are obedient to their Parents and are quiet and are in the School where teaching is So you come to hear and we to teach but all our teaching in a manner is by the Spirit of God Therefore it is a wonderful thing to see how quickly the Spirit of God will make a Schollar ripe how in a quarter of a year nay in a moneth almost the Spirit of God will fill him with all spirituall learning whereas the best preacher in the world let him Preach concisely and exactly in a natural way he shall not teach him the tenth part Nay we reach you we preach it may be four or five Sermons and we open it as well we can poor earthen creatures and when we come to look on it a quarter of a year after we finde that those notions that it may be were so confused and poor while we were teaching you that there is a glorious piece made in your souls by the Spirit of God though our Notes when they were done were scarce worth the burning we are so poor and frail in teaching and you in your outward hearing therefore there is an exceeding great power that works in you that believe Fourthly and lastly for I speak this to inhaunce and 4 By working our works in and for us advance the Spirit of God as Paul saith we are not debters to the flesh but to the Spirit you ow more to the Spirit then you are aware of consider in all the good that you do in all the good works that you do how wonderful passive you are in the doing of them We have a saying It holds true I gainsay it not in a sort that a man in conversion is passive and afterwards he is active that is God in a mans conversion works on a man as a dead creature only he is rational but he suffers and works not with God but when he is converted then a man hath a principle of life God works and man works man works with God and it is a true comparison we were then passive now we are active But in respect of the principle by which we move and walk truely a Christian may say I am altogether passive in a manner in all that I do God carries a mans tongue to speak and his hands to work and his feet to walk God carries a man in good many times and
have them opprest he need say no more But let us a little view these Nations that were joyned together they were very numerous very many The best place in the world will afford company enough if a man will conspire and plot against the Saints It is no argument for a man to say Such a Gentleman and such a Magistrate is in and such a one hath put his hand to it and they plead for it that is not enough here are ten Nations people enough A man must not go with a multitude to do evil It is rather an argument that the thing is evil when there is a multitude especially when it is a multitude of people that are set upon no good that the most are whoremongers or drunkards or covetous men when there are a multitude of such then the multitude is an argument rather that the designe is naught though they be not thorowly acquainted what it is But let us look upon them in particular First The Tabernacles of Edom were there they are first set down Now who this people of Edom were you shall see Deut. 2. They were the seed of Esau God had forbid the children of Israel when they were going up to Canaan they that should not distress Moab and Edom but should buy every thing for their money they should not plunder as we use to say nor do any thing unrighteously because God had given Mount Seir to Edom a people that had received abundance of kindnesses from Israel and when they passed thorow their country though they were a wicked people yet they paid money for their very water as it is in the beginning of Deuteronomie And the Holy Ghost put them in the forefront that Edom of all others should do it The Tabernacles of Edom. That is the Souldiers that lived in tabernacles or tents for they used tents in their Armies as we see clearly Iudg. 7. There was a cake comes and throwes down their tents The Tabernacles of Edom that is the Souldiery part of Edom they were they that did this Beloved they of all others the Lord takes notice of in conspiring against the Saints who have received kindness from the Saints How many men have we seen in England that have received many courtesies in their wants of the people of God and when they have been in distress otherwise yet after all their purposes they have come to cut their throats God takes notice of them more then others Therefore 2 Chron. 20. 11. you shall read of Moab and Amon and those of Mount Seir they were coming to fight against Iehosaphat Iehosaphat enters the suit to God he sets himself to seek the Lord and among the rest of his arguments this is one behold saith he how they reward us to come to cast us out of the posession that thou hast given us to inherit you shall read in ver 10. And now behold the children of Ammon and Moab and Mount Seir whom thou wouldst not let Israel invade when they came out of the Land of Egypt but they turned from them and destroyed them not saith Iehosaphat When we came out of Egypt thou commandedst us that we should not destroy them and that we should pay for every thing we took and behold how they requite us There are few wicked people but they receive courtesies from the Saints but when they turn persecutors it is a pittifull thing consider of it in the black roll of the accusations of the Saints the Lord will have them put in the first place The Tabernacles of Edom. And the Ishmalites That is the seed of Ishmael that presecuted his brother Isaac and jeered him and laughed at him And of Moab Moab was one of the children of Lot The Hagarens That is those that came from Hagar for though they were the same people sometimes they are called Ishmalites from their father or Hagarens from their Grand mother Hagar Geball Geball they say was a Nation near Zidon where Solomon sent to fetch gold Ammon Ammon was one of the sons of Lot by incest Amalek Was one of those that first fought against Israel Exod. 17. that God sware should be cut off and God sent Saul to do it and he did it not and he after was cut off by an Amalekite The Philistines We read of the Philistines often And them that dwell at Tyre Tyre was a rich City spoken of by the prophets on the Sea-side Ashur also is joyned with them Ashur that is the Assyrians that came from Aser one of the children of Seth. They have helped the children of Lot That is they have holpen Moab and Ammon they have strengthened their Arms against Israel Selah That is take notice Of what that they were numerous that did it and that they were in the first place that had received kindnesses of God people And take notice that those that acted most in it were the seed of godly men they have holpen the children of Lot Many times the children of Gods people the chiefest persecutors Beloved you see by experience many times the children of Godly people are the feircest persecutors All the rest Geball and those inhabitants of Tyre they were prophane people they did but help the children of Lot it was they that set it on foot and carried the designe a kinde of rotten professors that are persecuters of godly people I have oft thought if thou be the childe of a godly man or woman though thou have many priviledges that others have not thou hast more cause to fear then others have for usually it comes to passe that that Religion that was in power in the parents is onely in forme in the children they learn their fathers Religion by head that they had by heart they pray as their fathers did but there is not that Spirit and they can hear Sermons but there is not the heart of their fathers and mothers so for a time they keep a forme of godliness that will not last and then on a sudden they fall into the stream of persccution and then all that head knowledge that they have serves them for no other stead but to make them more desperate and skilfull in persecuting and opposing the people and the ways of God Thus you have the Nations set down that do this Now the prophet come to pray unto the Lord further or to prophesie for the prayers of the prophets were prophesies usually Do unto them as unto the Midianites as to Sisera as to Jabin at the brook Kison which perished at Endor they became as dung for the earth c. The prophet prayes or prophesies against them two ways First he desires God that he would punish them according to those patterns and examples of justice that he had shewed in former times Do unto them as unto the Midianites You shall read of them in Iudg. 7. The Midiantes were as Grashoppers for number and Gidion with an hundred men that had Trumpets in their hands comes upon them and
make a dallying with sin which is altogether unworthy of the Gospel of Iesus Christ one dallies and flickers like the Fly about the Candle with one last one while and another with another and still the Spirit is grieved and then you know where you are You little think when you are dallying and trifling with lusts and do not set forth the strength of Christ in you against them little do you think what bitter fruit you have along with it It may leave you so low that you know not whether ever it will come again and there is the misery of all miseries how do I know but that God hath cast me off and left me and will never see my soul more because when I was tempted to pride and frowardness or worldliness I gave way and did basely and spake unworthily Have a care of this this is the will of God and it is for your warning that since God hath made you happy you would take heed that you make not your selves miserable but that you would be careful not to grieve the blessed Spirit whereby you are sealed and comforted Sin is like that Italian Fig that Physitians say how true I know not they can poyson a man in a Fig and take the poyson and it shall not work in a moneth or in two moneths after So a poor Christian sins and breaks into frowardness to raile against his brother and backbite and yet he findes the comfort of the Spirit fresh but it may be a week or a fortnight after when he goes to shake himself as Sampsom when he went against the Philistins when he hath sinned and thinks to go with the same boldness to God in prayer he finds his strength weakned and the Spirit gone and then all is gone his Life and Prayers and Seals and Comforts and Evidences and Assurance and there is nothing but a careass left made up of flesh And whatsoever is born of flesh is flesh A man would think it were a ridiculous phrase we observe it not flesh is abominable to God Flesh what is that I have lately seen a dead horse one of the ugliests sights that ever I saw it was full of huge monstrous Vermin abominable that I cannot fitly speak of it and I wondered why it should be so and I concluded because it was flesh when the flesh was gone there would be none of that stink and filth left so in your souls and minde there is a piece of flesh for every Vermin and the devil may come with seven spirits worse and may say there is such a soul there was the Spirit but now there is nothing but flesh come fellow devils Therefore beware of grieving the Spirit it is easily grieved It is not the greatness of our sins that grieves the Spirit but the baseness of our hearts in sinning in little things it may be in wearing Apparel or Lace or Open breasts in trifling things with a sinful disposition that which we account a trifling lust may grieve the Spirit Therefore I say you that have it prise the Spirit and you that have it not labor to have it and endeavor to please and to entertain the Spirit for the Spirit and Christ are the same as it were they are taken one for another Christ dwels in us and the Spirit dwels in us and saith the Spouse in the Canticles I will take my beloved and bring him to my mothers Chamber and let none call my beloved or wake him till he please Study to give all contentment to the Spirit of God cross him not thwart him not vex him not but entertain him for he is your life and you are nothing but flesh when he is gone It may be God hath other designs in it otherwise when God takes away his Spirit and leaves my soul in desertion if I did not think God had a design in it for his own glory and my good I should utterly sink Therefore God sometimes takes away his Spirit to the end that we may know the worth of the Spirit how to prize it and to pitty people that have it not and to please it with more carefulness if God ever give it us again Expositions and Observations on 2 COR. 11. 3. But I fear lest by any means as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty so your mindes should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ I Shall not expound it but only out of the presumption I have of your goodness and the love of God in you that you will hear a spirituall word in any shape therefore though brokenly and confusedly I would take occasion from these words to exhort you to stick to the simplicitie of the Gospell my meaning is this that The Gospell is a far more simple and plaine thing then most people conceive it to be Truly beloved I think that our growing now we The simplicity of the Gospel are come out of Antichrist is not to grow in higher notions and speculations of things but to grow more simple in the worship of God We shall be less curious a great deal when Christ shall set up his worship then when Antichrist set it up Our growing in knowledg is not as honest Doctor Preston saith to know new things so much as to know old things in a new manner The Gospel is a plain simple thing There are these three reasons I shall give you Argued from three reasons 1. The matter of it First I finde that the matter of the Gospel is a plaine simple thing not of ens and non ens and notions that none can apprehend them as people every where discourse above the Moon I understand not their words no not grammatically not in the letter and this is their high and glorious light But I see the Apostles preached Christ they tell a story of a man born of the Virgin Mary apprehended of the Iewes and he was a publike person and bore the sins of his people and he was put to death and rose again for our justification In the preaching of the Apostles in the Acts we finde none of those Chymeras and Ideas and distinctions that we generally finde professors now aiming at But to know plain Christ crucified in a spirituall manner As compare 1 Cor. 2. with Philip. 3. we shall see clearly Paul saith he knew what the world did not know that eye did not see nor ear had heard and what was that Christ crucified and the power of his resurrection as he opens it Phil. 3. And besides as we finde it is a plaine simple thing 2. The instruments divulging it so we see the Lord chose simple people to go and preach it he chose generally fisher men and such poor men and women sometimes Rude men in a manner without learning these were to go and tell a simple story of Iesus Christ and him crucified c. I finde also the parties to whom the Gospell is directed 3. Those to whom it was
more and more for we are setling like the Jews in an outward formal Reformation without heart Now it would be terrible if the Lord should chuse our own administration and give us according to our own heart I hope he will not But this lay heavy upon my spirit to tell you of therefore the Lord direct you to make the best use you can that if it be his blessed will this place that is the honor and glory of the Kingdom and the refuge of the Saints that the Lord would not come against it FINIS THE TABLE  Page A  Abiding  ABiding with God in evil times 72 Actions  Saints not under the Law in their actions 157 Afflictions  Afflictions of godly and wicked how different 31 Afflictions turn to the good of Saints 119 The life of Faith in afflictions 130 Saints not under the Law in regard of afflictions 150 Afflictions not to be fainted in 194 Amend  All should amend when the wicked are punished 104 Angels  Angels pry into Gospel mysterie 201 Angels good and bad do it ibid. Apostacy  Apostacy a provoking sin 11 Assurance  Life of Faith in Assurance 130 Awake  Christians duty to awake God 86 B.  Betray  Not to betray Gods cause 88 Blasphemy  Blasphemy a provoking sin 9 Blessing see latter  Bristol  Gods mercy in recovering Bristol 107 C  Christ See cleaving  Christ makes all things amiable 192 Cleaving  Blessedness of cleaving to the Lord 70 Honor of cleaving to Christ in ill times 73 Special times of cleaving to God 77 Comfort  What should help Christians comfort 175 Conceits  Vain conceits of wicked men 33 Confidence  Ground of a Christians confidence 27 Consolation  Consolation a duty 40 Four things that hinder consolation ibid. Covenant  Spiritual understanding of the New Covenant effects of it 66 Covetousness  Covetousness a provoking sin 237 Creature  The vanity of the Creature why discovered 61 Conjunction  Conjunction of those that cleave to God 70 D.  Difference  Difference of Gods dealing with Saints 36 Difference between Saints and sinners 208 Discouraged  Weak Saints not to be discouraged 143 Distrust  Distrust in times of danger to be avoided 87 Division  Division among Saints a provoking sin 9 Duty See Consolation  Four grounds of Duty 149 E.  Enemies  Assurance of victory over enemies the effects of it 64 How God destroyes his enemies 85 Equality  Equality that should be between Saints 144 Evil see good  Example  Example of Saints a ground of prayer 150 F.  Faith  Faith the want of it what it doth 40 Faith the life of it 44 Faith how God tries it 83 Faith how the just live by it 128 See Affliction Assurance Sanctification  False  False dealing 237 Fondness  Holy fondness between God and the Saints 54 Holy fondness in five things 55 Fondness wrought four ways 61 Formality  Formality in duties a provoking sin 4 See Reformation  G.  Garison see Minde  God see Hypocrisie Persecutors  Good  To call evil good a provoking sin 11 See Afflictions Work  Gospel  Gospel precepts highest 162 Gospel Mysteries to be attended 202 Gospel riches to be admired 204 Gospels simplicity 225 Government  Government how to be affected 204 Greater  How to argue from less mercies to greater 120 Grace  Grace weak how to comfort it 45 Grace what meant by it 160 Of those that are under Grace 162 Power in Grace more then the Law 164 H.  Heart  Heart hardened 8 Hidden  Saints Gods hidden ones 90 Holiness  Holiness desired on wrong grounds 41 Right laboring for holiness 198 See Comfort  Hypocrisie  Hypocrisie hateful to God 48 Hipocrites honor creatures above God 50 Hypocrisie dishonors God ibid. I.  Judg.  Saints not to judg one another 143 Judgments  Maner of Gods proceeding to judgment 2 Cause of judgments what 3 Judgments why sent 103 Ingenuity  Ingenuity of right Saints 163 Justification  How to live by Faith in Justification 128 133 K.  Kiss  Holy Kiss what 145 L.  Latter Last  Blessing of the latter times 122 First shall be last how 138 Law  Saints under the Law how 156 See Persons Actions Afflictions Gospel  Learning  Learning humane wherein useful 211 Life see Faith Sanctification  Lord see cleaving  Love  Love of God what it works 62 To love though we be not loved 181 Mutual love how attained 184 M.  Minde  Garison of the minde what 16 Mingled  The life of a Christian mingled 133 Ministers  Ministers sins provoke God 149 N.  Nature  Duties grounded in nature 6 O.  Officers  Officers sins provoke God 8 Oppression  Sin of oppression 236 Ordinance  Prayer an Ordinance of God 149 Ordinances not to be neglected 152 Ordinances needful 153 P.  Patience see waiting  Peace  Peace to be studied by Saints 196 Perpetual see Prayer Persecutors Persecution  To cleave to God in persecution 78 Persecutors design 91 God persecuted in the Saints 93 Children of the godly may prove fierce persecutors 99 Persons  Persons of Saints how under the Law 156 Power  Power that Saints have 166 The Spirit called power how 173 See Grace  Prayer  Prayer a perpetual duty 151 Prayer whence it proceeds 169 Wants of prayer how supplied 170 See Ordinance Nature Precept Example Promise  Precept  Precepts ground of prayer 150 See Gospel  Promises  Promises ground of prayer 151 Protection  Protection of God who have right to it 21 Pride  Pride how discovered 185 R.  Reflect  Reflect acts hard to man 177 Saints to reflect on their estate 178 Reformation  Formal Reformation a provoking sin 5 Refuge  God a refuge 14 To repair to God as a refuge 17 Religion  Religion wherein it consists 211 Riches see Gospel  Revolting  Revolting a provoking sin 239 S.  Saints see Weak Sanctification  Life of Faith in Sanctification 129 131 Saintship to be prized 194 Satan  Grounds of Caution against Satan 202 Security  Security why to avoyd it 140 Self-love  Self-love a provoking sin 10 Shame  Iudgments sent to shame men 103 Simplicity  Simplicity of Religion 212 Simplicity of the Gospel 223 Sin  What sins provoke judgments 3 Carriage of Saints faln into sin 43 Saints carriage in a deluge of sin 77 Aggravations of sin 240 Silent  God silent in danger why 83 Soul  The soul of God departs from incorrigible sinners 244 Spirit  Spirit powerful in Saints 166 Spirit undervalued how 167 Spirit wherein powerful 169 Spirit differs Saints and Sinners 208 Spirit how known 210 Spirit to be labored for 213 Spirits excellency 215 Spirits grieving dangerous 220 Spirit to be prized 221 See Word Teaching Work Power  T.  Teaching  Teaching of the Spirit 170 Testament  Testaments compared 188 Trouble  Trouble in Saints whence 190 V.  Vengeance  Vengeance of God against the wicked 27 Union  Union between Christ and Christians 229 Upright  Uprightness ground of it 22 Uprightness how tried 84 W.  Waiting  Ground of waiting on God 112 Weak  Weak Saints not to be contemned 141 Weak Saints their carriage to stronger 142 Weak Saints to be encouraged 196 Word  Spirit to be advanced as speaking in the Word 168 Work  Who works in and for us 172 To be ready to every good work 206 FINIS
you that profess your selves to be Saints that you would make To repair to this refuge towards this refuge or this garison here in all your troubles I am ashamed and troubled and have been truly many yeers to see Saints and godly people when troubles come on them to spend their wits and beat their brains in finding refuge in outward things O if I were here or there in such a Town in such an Iland in such a Country in such a place I should have it Beloved our song should be Salvation God will appoint us for walls and bulwarks Our way is when all the Kingdoms of the world are shaken to seek to get into that Kingdom that shakes not That is let England and all the world shake I care not so I have the Spirit of Christ the comforter to bring peace to my soul that may set up a garison there that nothing may assault and trouble me Then let all the world let heaven and earth shake I am sure I am safe this is the way It is a common saying of many particular persons Let a man not seek himself any where without in the opinion of men So let not Saints seek refuge and shelter and salvation in outward helps but if they should see the Kingdom of England which God forbid involved in more miseries and troubles and desolations c. Lay this down alway by thee there is a Kingdom that cannot be shaken England and Scotland and Ireland are shaken but there is a Kingdom that cannot be shaken Such a garison is besieged such a Town is in danger such a place is stormed but there is a garison that the Lord hath put into the hearts of his Saints that cannot be stormed or assaulted Therefore ply the Lord Jesus Christ by the Spirit of the New Testament by his holy comforter that he would garison thy soul and put peace there And then what shall be the issue I will tell thee that thou with a holy joy and complacency and delight of Spirit when thou seest the very pillars of heaven shaken as it were shalt sollace thy self in thy own garison and walk in the streets of it and be safe thou shalt triumph over all storms and troubles and all that is here Not because that a Saint is able to encounter those things that are here For a Saint is not able to answer if you ask what he conceives will be the end of these things he cannot answer these things but onely he retreats to the middle Region as a bird he flies above sublunary things he can say I cannot tell what shall become of England or Scotland or Ireland but I am sure I know a back door that leads into a Kingdom that cannot be shaken to go into the middle Region where no storms of the Air shall trouble me and there I can rest my spirit I alway for my part with submission to the wise apprehend it as a thing too carnal and too low for Saints to think to finde a resting place in this world any place is heaven in such an Iland in such a Plantation and such a place let it be what it will But a Saint that hath this garison in his heart and minde he is at peace This garison David had when his enemies compassed him and he had no walls when there were 10000 about him he lay and slept For thou Lord sustainedst me saith he The salvation of God was walls and bulwarks about him If this peace of God be above understanding how can it be otherwise then be above expression We can therefore give but a hint of it but such a thing there is The Saints walk in a green meadow by the rivers of waters Psal 23. in the spring all the day and all the night long in beholding the love of God and the Covenant of God made in Iesus Christ the full forgivenesse of all their sins the everlasting union between them and Christ and through Christ between them and God and beholding the Spirit in its working within them and beholding the glory that shall be revealed at the last day the Crown that Christ shall bring with him they walk safely and sweetly and securely though all the Kingdoms of the world and the pillars of heaven be shaken As the heathen said If the world break about his ears he would undergo it without trouble Not because he can answer these things but withdrawing himself to his place from them I cannot tell whether the Kingdom shall stand but I can go to the middle Region to Iesus Christ where there is no storme Learn that and lay aside your great projects like the men of the world of building Castles in the air for Garisons but labour to get into this Garison Salvation will God appoint for walls and Bulwarks Open ye the gates that the righteous Nation which keepeth the truth may enter in This is a speech just alluding to a Garison they use there to open the gates and to shut them and when any body comes they bid them stand and ask them who they are for What are they One saith he is a friend and then they bid open the gates and let him come in if not to shut the gates against him Open ye the gates saith the Lord But none must come in but a friend but who is this friend It is The righteous Nation which keep the truth they shall enter in The word in the Originall it is Truth not Truth not one or two or three or four truths but the righteous Who have a right to Gods protection Nation that keepeth the truths let them enter in That is the word if you will passe this Court of Guard he that shall come into this Garison is he that keepeth truth with a good conscience notwithstanding all the troubles that befall him in this world he shall enter into this Garison Therefore I beseech you look to your selves Truly it is unconceiveable and unutterable what the joy the comfort the worth of that Garison is where it is set up in the soul yet there are no hypocrites no partiall obeyers of Iesus Christ and his laws that shall enter into it Therefore if I speak Hebrew or Greek as it were to you that you understand not what I mean by this Garison look to your selves it may be you have not the word and therefore you cannot get in It may be you walk not uprightly you are not of the upright Nation and people you keep not the truths It may be you pick one truth here and another there that pleaseth you that suits with your reason or your lusts and corruptions or with the stream of the world you honor and respect that and for the rest of the truth let you neighbours take it if they will you will none of it if it bring shame and persecution and reproch That is the reason when troubles come you are at your wits end you know not where to go because
Leviathan that crooked Serpent and he shall slay the Dragon that is in the Sea In that day sing ye unto her A vineyard of Red Wine I the Lord do keep it I will water it every moment least any hurt it I will keep it night and day Fury is not in me who would set the bryars and thorns against me in battel I would go through them I would burn them together Or let him take hold of my strength that he may make peace with me and he shall make peace with me c. I Shal endevor briefly to pick a lesson or two out of this Chapter In the Chapter before we have many blessed promises that God hath made to his people and that in the times of trouble And many threatnings of the wicked How God will come out against them as he saith Chap. 25. And spred his hands in the midst of them as he that spredeth his hands to swim That is God will extend his wrath and power to destroy the wicked and in the latter end of Chapter 26. The Lord cometh out of his place c. Now the beginning of this Chapter is but an enlargement and illustration of that The Lord will come with his sore and great and strong Sword to punish Leviathan the crooked Serpent and to stay the Dragon in the Sea This Leviathan whatsoever it is which is scarce known onely we read in Job of Leviathan one of the terriblest creatures that God hath made It is conceived to be the Whale but it is uncertain whatsoever it is it is a terrible creature The wicked that persecute the Saints are called Leviathan the piercing crooked Serpent That is those Gods vengeance against the wicked great enemies of Gods people those venemous cruel enemies those crooked deceitful enemies of Gods people he will come with his great and sore and strong sword to destroy them So we see be the enemies of God never so great never so cruel or never so cunning the Lord will destroy them He hath a great strong sore sword He hath a great sword in opposition to their greatness he hath a strong sword in opposition to their strength and he hath a sore sword in opposition to their cruelty Therefore O that God would teach you this lesson A ground of our confidence Let your confidence get above the greatest enemies in this world What though men be wise and crooked as Solomon saith there were three things that he knew not one was The way of a Serpent upon a Rock Though men be so cunning to betray the Church that they cannot be traced no more then a ship in the Sea or a crooked Serpent on a Rock yet let your faith get on the top of them Say not they are great but there is a greater then they God will bring them down and bring them to confusion That is one thing In that day sing to her A vineyard of Red Wine I the Lord will keep it I will water it every moment I will keep it night and day This vineyard is the Church and people of God I will not stand upon it why it is called a vineyard He calls it so principally because the people of God are a fruitful people One sinner destroyeth much good and one Saint doth much good Were it not for a few Saints you may let all your Armies and Courts and every thing go There is no good in the world besides there are a few Saints and they are fruitful And also because God preserves them and keeps them because of the Lords care I the Lord keep it I water it every moment least any should hurt it I keep it night and day See how God expresseth his tenderness and care of his blessed art thou and I if we be of them The Lord keeps and preserves them and he will do it with all care The Lord keeps not his Vineyard as we keep his Commandments and Ordinances and the things that belong to him The Lord expresseth his care of his Vineyard by the greatest expressions of care that any creature hath therefore he saith he keeps them as the apple of his eye That made David boldly ask Lord keep me as the apple of thine eye And the Prophet Isai h saith He keeps them as a little bird that sits over her young A Bird is a fearful creature and yet if you come to take away her young ones she will flie in your face Beloved though we think the Lord mindes us not yet he hath a wonderful tender unspeakable care in preserving us And I will water them every moment Vineyards are hot and must be watered or else they will be scorched by the Sun So our souls unless they were watered continually they would be scorched up What is this water The Holy Spirit I will pour water upon the dry ground That is I will pour my Spirit upon your souls We are so apt to wast our graces every day unless God give us a new stock And the earth in Spain and Italy and those hot Countries is not apter to drink water then our hearts are to devour and make havock of all the grace of God And were it not for the blessed constant supply that God gives of his Spirit the best Saint in twenty four hours would be as bad as a carnal man It may be thou hast a little quickening of God in thy soul but yet God must water them every moment Fury is not in me who would set the bryars and the thorns against me in battel I would goe through them c. God expresseth his goodness to his people One would think it was a wonder God did not destroy them No saith God Anger is not in me For who would set bryars and thorns against me in battel I would go through them This is the reason that God doth not destroy thee and me not because we are not sinful but because we are so wretched if he should contend with us he would destroy us presently Saith God All the imaginations of mans heart are evil therefore I will destroy the earth no more It is the nobleness of Gods nature that nobleness that is in us is but a poor thing it is but a resemblance of that at the best it is the nobleness of Gods nature he will not destroy a creature that is too weak and too small for him Therefore of Niniveh God saith There were so many that knew not their right hand from their left therefore he would not destroy them So our littleness moves the Lord to spare us when our wickedness would make him to destroy us The Lord is a consuming fire Put a little stubble or thorns and bryars before the fire and it will consume them O blessed God! that takes any argument to save his creature And O wretched Creatures we that will take no argument to serve and obey him If there be any good in us he makes that an argument if that be not there yet
from our littleness and weakness any thing he will draw arguments of his goodness from Yet many times we are of such a temper that we will not draw one argument to move us to do that which is pleasing in his eyes Well he is a glorious God and we are like our selves Let him lay hold on my strength Let the poor bramble go and lay hold upon the wall I have strength enough to destroy and devour them but I wish that they would lay hold of my strength There is a way that all the strength that is in God thou mayest make it for thee on thy side All the power and strength that is in God is against wicked men that receive not Christ but there is a way that thou mayest make that party on thy side thou mayest make God on thy side Take hold on him that is receive Christ and then thou art in the Covenant and all belongs to thee upon that and all the power whereby he made heaven and earth and rules the sea and every thing is thy power it is for thee And make peace with me and they shall make peace It is like the expression of some people that are wondrously given to love and peace and though other people desire to quarrell yet they will not quarrell but they will be freinds there is no neighbour so mischievous but they will be friends with them in spight of their heart so sayth God Let them make peace with me and they shall make peace It is like that expression of God I will put my spirit in their hearts and they shall keep my statutes That thy soul could creep along upon this blessed wall and make peace with him and lay hold of his promise and he saith thou shalt make peace He shall cause them that come of Iacob to take root c. You see how sweet God is in afflicting his Saints how he preserves them and hears them in whipping them Here he shewes three great differences between Three differences in the afflictions of the godly and wicked the afflictions of the godly and of the wicked The first is this saith he have I smitten him as I smote those that smote him Or is he slain according to the slaughter of them that are slain by him That is the Lord doth not lay such a weight of affliction upon his children as he doth upon wicked people that is one thing therefore he stays his rough wind in the day of the east wind No east wind blowes on the Saints for in Scripture language that is the wrath of God All the other winds are growing but the East wind is cutting and chilling Secondly it is said God will debate with them that is besotted carnall men as Pharaoh and others he layes afflictions upon afflictions upon them and they never know why it makes him a sot and he brayes him as a fool in a Morter but I will debate with him saith God I will reason the case As a father when he whips his childe will you do so again saith he And is this handsome The Lord never whips his childe but he debates with him Thirdly the issue and fruit of it All the fruit is he doth it to take away sin he will make all the stones of the Altar as Chalk-stones he will beat them to pieces that is they shall pull down their Groves and their Altars as you do Chalk-stones when you burne them and beat them in pieces This should make us sweeten our thoughts of God he is sweet in his providence in his Ordinances in his corrections we see what a good God he is how he draws water out of the Flint he draws arguments of grace and mercy and goodnesse to save wretched creatures any way in such a way that if we were Judges we would condemn our selves The Lord sweeten your hearts and raise up your souls to apprehend his mercy Expositions and Observations on ISAIAH 28 15. Because ye have said we have made a Covenant with death and with hell are we at agreement c. We have made agreement with hell NOt that they said so but God brings in their thoughts as in Iob Depart from us we desire not the knowledge of thy laws That is the difference between Gods book and mens books men write books according to the words of men but the word of God is according to their thoughts Here are four or five things noted of wicked men Four things observed of wicked men 1. Their v. in conceits First we have made say they a covenant with death and with hell we are at an agreement The meaning is not that they did draw writings between them and hell for hell will make no agreement but the meaning is they were assured in their conceits that they should be delivered from hell and death and misery As a man that hath made a Covenant for his land c. and hath got witnesses to it he hath made sure he hath it in black and white so there was a foolish confidence in them they assured themselves that they should escape as if death and hell had given them an acquittance and had sealed it and there had been Covenants drawn between them and the Devill That is one thing But saith God Your Covenant with death shall be disannulled and your agreement with hell shall not stand That is you shall see that all those conceits are but vaine Just as if a man should go and make a Covenant with his neighbour and buy his land and he should never tell his neighbour that he would sell it this agreement would be broken and the Covenant would not stand So you build Castles in the aire you make a Covenant and agreement in your conceits that you are safe and you hope the best and God is mercifull but the day will come when all this will be done away As Iob saith it is just as a Spiders web that is a fine thing that she hath been working all the week and then the Maide comes to make clean the house and all is taken away with one stroak of a brush Another thing is the Lord compares them here to Illustrated in two comparisons Compa ∣ rison 1 people that would hide themselves by the sea side where the tide comes up As you see sometimes when the tide is low there are green medows and bushes before it be high spring and there they hide themselves and the water comes and overflowes their hiding place If they stay there a while and it may be are asleep the tide comes and drowns them all Do ye not think a man were mad that should go and hide himself in a hole of a bridge and sleep when the tide was low and then the tide come in and overwhelm him So it will be with thee if thou receive not Iesus Christ We have made lies our refuge and under falshood have we hid our selves Mr. Calvin saith they may be compared to little
Saint that is fond of God bring him meat he sees the love of God in Christ in it bring him cloathes or any thing his eye is fastened more upon the love of God in Christ then upon the thing As the spouse in the Canticles for the Canticles is a book of fondnesse between Christ and his people she hears one talk I warrant you saith she this is the voice of my beloved she is so fond of him that she could not hear one talk but she saith It is my beloved when she looks on the gallery and the lattice I warrant you saith she my beloved looks thorow that grate and when she sleeps her heart waketh It is a blessed thing when we do not eye things in themselves but so as we are able to see God in them And you shall know it by the various tempers of your souls for sometimes you are more spirituall and sometimes more carnall when you are carnall you use more of the creature and never see God at all but when you are spirituall you see God and his love in Christ in every thing I shall now shew you how God brings his children This fondness wrought four wayes to this holy fondnesse and I would leave you longing for it and I trust in God to leave some souls sick till God work and bring up their souls to that I will name but onely four The first thing is that God utterly convinceth a Saint 1. By disabling all the Creation to this end of the vanity of every creature and of every condition he will never be fond till then God lets him suck one creature after another and then he sees the vanity of them God puts him into one condition after another O saith a Saint when he is sick if I were well I should rejoyce and glorifie God God gives him health and then he is in a worse temper When he is poor saith he If I had to pay my debts and to set up handsomly then I should serve God God sets him up and lets his heart go after covetousnesse and saith to him Dost thou not see that thou art worse then thou wert before So God chaseth him from one creature to another and from one condition to another If he would be in the Country God convinceth him that he will be worse then in the Town At last he saith Lord I have tried and hunted all and I see they are a company of vanities And sometime when he is sick in body and shaken in soul God appears gloriously and makes the worst condition better then the best so God follows and traseth and chaseth him from one to another till he bring him to see every creature vanity and every condition and saith a Saint I do not much care what condition whether he put me in prison or at liberty whether I be rich or poor well or sick so he reveal himself to my soul You will never be fond till you come to that till God convince you of all conditions and of the use of all creatures and tire thee that thy soul may say God is all in all I am indifferent what creatures I have or want or what condition I am in for I have seen God to be all in all I have seen nothing in riches and in liberty but as God comes into a condition or is absent so it is sweet or bitter good or bad People that are professors in these sad times they would not be so reaching and griping and undermining for offices and places and preferments and I know not what if they did see this Another way it this that the Lord sheds his love into their hearts Rom 5. he poures it out as you would 2 By Gods pouring forth his love in their heart pour out a Paile or a Bucket of water God so over-powers the heart with his love that there is no guilt no hardness no fear no spirit of bondage at all left in the soul Beloved why are not we more fond of God why is not he more deare to us The reason is because we have many hard thoughts of him that he may be an enemy as well as a friend and I know not what he means I look upon him at a catch as with a staffe in his hand to strike me There are abundance of those thoughts in the soul especially in affliction some professors are ready to say God hath found me out as an hypocrite and plagueth me In afflictions ordinary professors loose more though they talk of getting But the Lord comes to some of his children and so over-powers their hearts with his love that there is not one thought nor imagination in their hearts but onely of love to him and then they will be fond for when they see pure love in God and nothing but a principle of pure love in them to God what should hinder but they should be fond one of another There is a homely comparison a woman that hath butter in a dish she melts some of the butter but if she take it too soon from the fire there will be a core a knob in the dish left and being taken from the fire it grows bigger till all be hard So a weak Saint by studying the promises of God and the love of God it dissolves much of the knobbinesse yet there are some hard thoughts and Iealousies and suspitions but God comes at last and melts all the butter together all the knobbiness that is in the heart every thought and imagination of terrour and guilt and fear that there is a clear and pure principle of love to God and then the soul is fond of him The Lord takes a great deal of delight to train and bring up his childe to be more in love with him God will so traine and bring him up that if he throw him into the worst condition that can be for body or soul and shall say what thinkest thou of me now hast thou any hard thoughts of me saith God No saith the soul all is Love As for instance I will tell you a thing the worst on this side hell I speake not of imprisonment or shame but God may take him and leave him to sin and then the soul awakes and thinks good Lord where am I O what a hell have I in me for there is a hell in the heart if God take off the vail of grace if he draw the Curtain there is nothing but hell in the soul There are many sins that thou hast committed that there is not a soul in the world that hath committed worse This is true saith a Saint and dost thou not think saith God that thou art an hypocrite and that I shall damn thee for this No saith the soul I know I have nothing in me but of thy Grace and if thou draw the Curtain all is hell but there is nothing but love even then after sin there is not one hard thought it makes the soul more fond
and he wondred that there was no intercessor That is God suffered all this truth to faile and Justice to fall back and every thing to go to wrack and ruine God would see if any man would intercede any man among our Magistrates or Ministers or Citizens if any man would plead for God and for his people and for his truth but he saw none and wondered Truly God wonders and men may wonder to see what abundance of people follow God and good lives in the time of prosperity and when adversity comes and wicked men and al the powers of hell conspire against godlinesse to see how few shew themselves for God God wonders at it Therefore his arm brought salvation unto him and his righteousnesse it sustained him he put on righteousnesse as a breast-plate and an helmet of salvation upon his head and he put on the garments of vengeance for cloathing and was clad with Zeale as a cloak The Lord comes and Arms himself just as valiant souldiers in the wars when a party is gone forth they stand to see what they do how they come off but if there be none that will stick to it but run away they buckle on their armour So the Lord stands to see where is the man that will stick to it in these cases and if there be any God rejoyceth in it if there be none God himself comes in Therefore be sure of this when the Lord suffers his Son or any thing that belongs to him to come to these low conditions when truth failes in the street and equity is perverted it is not that God means to suffer the wicked to have their wills for God hath sworn that Christ shall reign but to trie us a little space whether we will couragiously stick to God and his cause or basely for fear of men comply with the world 3. For the compendious destrution of the it enemies There is a third reason God as it were keeps silence and holds his peace in the middst of the greatest troubles to this end that God may as it were gather the wicked into one fagot into one bundle that they may be destroyed together There is a great deal of ado to gather the Saints in this world and truly there is some ado togather the wicked So God withdraws himself from his people yet he hath a hook in their hearts he holds them up secretly by his Spirit that they shall not leave him yet the world shall not see but that God hath quite left them and all their Ordinances and his Gospell and every thing and then the wicked come together and insult whereby God may come upon them at once and destroy them as we finde ten Nations in this Psalm And so in Genesis God stirs up the Nations against Abraham and his posterity and there are ten Nations that God promiseth to cut off before Abraham at once the Perrezites and the Iebusites and the Canaanites c. So God heaps them together and burns them like stubble Those that burn stubble have rakes and they gather it to heaps and then they fire it This is the way of Gods keeping silence among his people and sitting still in the midst of their miseries thus God gathers their enemies on heaps as stubble that he may burn them together Therefore from this that I have said I have three words to say to you and to my own soul Vse 1 The first of all is that if the Lord should take any such course in our dayes that you would learn hence to awake God to call upon his Name to be earnest with him Truly there are a generation of people now I leave them to the Lord to judge them as I shall alway for we have all one master but there is a people that throw away the ordinance of prayer and they professe to live immediately upon God without ordinances without prayer and without all the rest I do not know what their perfections may be therefore I cannot judge but this I know as far as ever I had experience that the chiefest way of communion with God is spirituall prayer Build up one another on your holy faith and Pray in the Holy Ghost saith Iude. And therefore though you be ancient Christians and grow spirituall and see a great deal of formality in your prayers as some pray so many times a day and that out of forme not that they should not pray so oft in a day that is well take heed that out of any pretence you be not remiss for truly it is the readiest way to heaven and to attaine happiness and the clearest conduite to bring grace to the soul and the love of God and the shining of his face that I have yet known I yet know no better therefore take heed of the temptations of Satan that you do not upon any pretence either throw away prayer or be remisse in it Vse 2 Secondly if the Lord should leave his Church and people as we know not what he will do it may be God is going to take a napp let me warne you from the Lord and his word for that is the excellencie of the word by it thy servant is forewarned take heed of distrust and unbelief and impatience towards God God doth take a napp sometimes it is for his glory and for your good but yet cleave to him say as it is here in the Psalm O Lord who is like unto thee Do not think that the Lord will leave his people for God hath you know made a Covenant with his Son that he shall inherit all nations he shall subdue all his enemies under his feet All the enemies hitherto that have risen against his Church God hath subdued them and either our Gospell is vaine and our preaching vaine and our faith vaine and all vaine or else God will exalt his Son and his people and Saints and ordinances maugre all enemies though ten Nations as it is in this Psalm fight against them nay though ten thousand if there were so many in the world God will awake and subdue them and if there be no man in the world that will plead their cause God will do it Therefore live by faith and not by sense take heed of living by sense there is nothing that more poysons and imbitters our hearts and spirits and lives then the beholding of things by sense that as one good man speaks I wish saith he sometimes that I were quite bereft of reason that I might exercise faith We are used to sense and such a man doth this and this and here is conspiring in this and that place and all to overthrow Christ and the power of the Gospell What of all this Look by faith what God hath said and Covenanted and promised and keep up your spirits by faith Vse 3 Then lastly I would admonish all in the bowels of Iesus Christ to take heed of betraying Gods cause or people or your own salvation by your fleshlinesse I
Iohn 14. And in the Epistles of Iohn If we call upon God he will hear our prayers and grant our petitions and if you ask any thing in the name of Christ you shall have it You know these things onely I minde you as Peter and the rest of the Apostles often minded them of what they knew already least they should be carried away with the error of the wicked That is one thing it is an Ordinance you see four great pillars under it it hath the Law of Nature there are Precepts and Examples and Promises to perform what we pray for And there are threatnings to those that do it not Curse the Families that call not on thy Name Secondly I said it was an everlasting Ordinance or duty and you may see that three ways First If you look upon the old Testament you shall see there all the people of God they practised it I need not instance in any one place And secondly you will easily grant that if you look upon the times of the new Testament the dawning of it in Christs time for that was the dawning of the new Testament there you see Christ prayed whole nights and before day he was on the mountain seeking God and there are many Parables one in Luke 11. and another here wherein he exhorts his disciples to be earnest with God and though God as it were seem as if he had no minde otherwise to do it yet by the very importunity of prayer for that is the drift of that Parable in Luke 11. and of this the Lord will be intreated Then come after to the times that the new Testament was fully set up you see when Christ was gone to the Holy of Holies there they prayed and called on God continually all those Churches did call upon God there is nothing more clear Nay thirdly for there is the main hint of it in the last times in these times and in later times then these though these be called the last times the glorious times that shall be just at the end of the world the people of God will be a praying people in those days I will give you but one place Zach. 12. that is clear concerning the conversion of the Iews in the last times that they shall look on him whom they have pierced and shall mourn every family apart Now the Iews are not yet come in neither are those glorious times yet come to the Iews and Gentiles that shall follow upon their coming yet it is said when they shall come in praying shall be in such request in those days that even the conversation of the Iews is called a pouring on them the spirit of grace and supplication Therefore say not now the last times are come and these are glorious times and we can live immediatly upon God without Ordinances c. No those times are not come and yet when that time is come they shall have a spirit of grace and supplication to call upon God And therefore I beseech you let not the devil steal away any of your Ordinances for I tell you again and again he drives on a wonderful design among you in that respect And of all Ordinances labour to keep Prayer for cast off Prayer and cast off Saintship for to be a Saint and to call on the name of the Lord with a true heart are the same I will call thee no longer a Saint then thou callest on God Therefore notwithstanding all pretences look to that Some object God knows our wants and what need we pray Saith our Saviour Mat. 5. Your heavenly Father knows what you have need of and yet Christ taught them to pray We must manifest our obedience notwithstanding that God will do one thing when we pray for another that is a foolish objection because we know not what is good for us neither how to pray according to the minde of God but if it be according to his minde and for our good God will not deny it to us But the maine Engin that the devil hath to cheat us of this Ordinance is that there were times when there was neede of Ordinances and these beggerly rudiments this is the language of some these carnall Ordinances it is true they were good in the times of the Apostles and those former times but now glorious times are come for Saints to live immediately on God and therefore there is no need of them I told you that when the Iews shall be called there will be need of these Ordinances and though as we grow more perfect in glory so we have less need of them therefore as we are more glorious and have more of the Spirit of Glory in the new Testament then they had in the old so we have fewer Ordinances then they and when we shall come to heaven when she shall be full of glory we shall have no Ordinances for ought I know but yet we have infirmities and the Lord knows what is best for us and we have a great deal of flesh and carnalness and we shall have in a great measure till we be in heaven therefore God in mercy affords us these Ordinances and helps to deal with him and to keep our Communion with him and to live in and from him Therefore I pray you without partiality and prejudice weigh the Word of God whether this be not the Will of God and then take heed how the Devil cheat you of this blessed Ordinance for truly I may say as Christ said Now is the Ax laid to the root to the root of Prayer and if the Devil take away that thou art no more a Saint my life for thine if thou once throw away calling on God Therefore learn that word and endeavor to keep up the Ordinances of God and you that do not but are grown into remisness by the Opinions that are abroad concerning this duty I beseech you renew your care and diligence every one of you in publick and private to seek the Lord. And consider with your selves whether there be not a greater remisness on your spirits then before did you not set your selves oftner and more earnestly apart to seek God before then you do now If it be so in the name of God say as David O how sweet is thy Word by it thy servant is warned Now this is the goodness of God the sweetness of his Word that hath warned thee when thou wert going to undo thy self and to throw thy self away Therefore set thy self to it and let not the sin of others in throwing away of Ordinances make you remiss in using them either throw them away quite or use them as the Ordinances of God for the careless use of Ordinances is abominable to God Expositions and Observations on ROM 6. 14. For ye are not under the law but under Grace FOr ye are not under the Law There are three things in which a Christian is subject to be under the law and so to be scourged by it and if he
can get himself in those three things Saints under the Law in three respects out from it then he is wholy clear The Saints are under it partly either In respect of their Persons Actions Afflictions For their persons that is we do conceive that we do 1. As to their persons deal with God in some measure according to his law we think that God doth deal with us according to his law and that we deal with God in some measure according to his law Whereas we should conceive that God doth not look on me or speak to me or deal with me at all according to the law Christ having fulfilled it and I being dead to it but only in reference to grace so I deal with God as he is my Father as he is revealed to me in grace in the Doctrine of the Gospel so that if we could conceive that our persons are fully justified that all my weaknesses thoughout the day or week or year do not make me according to his Law one jot more unjust nor all my good doth not make me more just for Christ Jesus his Death and Resurrection doth that wholly therefore my person for ever is freed from the power of the Law and if I sin grace may call me to account for it and whip and scourge me with his Ferula but for the Law what have I to do with that what have I to do with a husband that is dead and buried what have I to do with the Covenant of works that Jesus Christ hath fulfilled and cancelled Therefore get your persons clear of the Law for that is it that evidenceth many times that you are not because when you sin against God then there ariseth storms within you that were once without you on Mount Sinai that blackness and darkness then you fear you are hypocrites then you finde wrath in your consciences as oft as you finde wrath that is the work of the Law for the Law worketh wrath it shews clearly that your persons are not quite freed from the Law for though there should be sorrow and more kindly and abundant sorrow then ever you felt before and care and other things yet even that wrath and horror and hardness of heart and risings of spirit against God will testifie that in some measure your persons are under the Law Ye are not under the Law Secondly Your actions I say should not be under 2 In respect of their actions the Law for as one saith as our persons are justified fully by Christ so are our actions that is whatsoever action I do or commit however that action may not be pleasing to God according to Grace or the Gospel it may not be an acceptable sacrifice as all our actions should be yet notwithstanding we should not conceive that our actions are to be squared and measured according to the rule and life of the Law which is the Covenant of works As for Instance when a man is under the Law whose actions are under the Law he labors all the day long to please God to serve and obey him but if he fail but once or twice that day in his duty there is some confusion whispered in his soul that all is lost there is more trouble for that one failing then he hath comfort for all that he hath done that day that is just the Law for the Law saith if he fail in one he is guilty of all Now if a man be under grace he rejoyceth in his sincere indeavor to honor God and he rejoyceth in the passages of that day that he hath had communion with God and where there is weakness there would be a sweet clear mourning for it in reference to God as a Father and not to have the heart estranged from God and straitned Our actions in a great measure are under the Law Our actions are freed from the Law in this life but we know not our freedom They are freed thus all arise either from flesh or spirit for those are the two beginnings the two first beeings of all Now those of the flesh for a Christian may do an action that is purely flesh that hath no good in it then that is a sin Christ Jesus hath done it away Now if it be an action that ariseth from his holy Spirit that flows from the principle of Iesus Christ that is in him the Lord accepts of it that is done already if he were able to do it yet it comes too late but onely he doth it as the honest upright indeavor of a loving childe to a dear father So could we measure our actions according to that rule our lives would be more holy and more sweet and comfortable Thirdly our afflictions or sufferings it were well 3 Relating to their afflictions if we could get out from under the lash of the Law in all these there we are deeply under it as soon as ever we are whipped then we say God hath found me out and it is true God may whip me for it because I will not take notice of it though God will not hide his countenance and his smiles from his childe one jot further then he must needs do it for fear of cockering him therefore I know if God frown and hide his face that God loves me and he would shew it but I have a base heart that at such times as that would like some sin and be wanton otherwise God hath no delight to hide his face a moment Now all my afflictions and sufferings I am not to look on them under the Law that is as though God in reference to these had a purpose to satisfie himself and his vengeance and to let his wrath fall upon me that is clearly to frustrate the death of Christ but I am to look on that as fully satisfied and done by Christ and God is more faithful then to be paid twice but I am to look upon all my afflictions as proceeding from the love of a dear father and I can take notice of many sins that displease him and he hath many Gospel-ends to do me good therefore in afflictions I admit not one hard thought of God but love him more for his favor in the Gospel If we see afflictions under grace aright then afflictions do exceedingly kindle love to God and increase our communion with him and whereas they make us run from God they would make us run to him and delight in him but we are under the Law and that makes our persons and actions and afflictions to be a burthen O that the Lord would help us to get clear of it that every one would labour to get his spirit his person his actions and his corrections and all clear of that and dead to that But ye are under grace Grace in this place as I conceive hath a very large extent and is not taken onely for that favor of God as it is usually in Scripture but there is something meant by it that shall
glorifies himself many times and a man knows not how in the world he comes to do it or why he did it or how he came about it so God doth many glorioous things by us and we are not aware This is the Lord this is the greatness of his power God in some actions he either carries a man and doth his work by a man without a man as it were or else he doth it above him There is no good almost that thou doest but thou shalt clearly see that it is above thee that it is God thou wert never able to speak or to do or to go through any such thing but the Lord went through with it It may be some of you understand not what it is to do a thing without you it is too spiritual but there are Christians that may and can say God did it without me I was as a block I know not how I was scarce active with God God did all O great and glorious is that power look which way you will what that power is in changing thy nature in destroying old Adam what that power is in resisting temptations what that power is in wrestling and prevailing with God what that power is to uphold thee in the wicked world and to preserve thee to the last day Consider it every way it is great wondrous glorious and mighty and exceeding mighty is that power that works in them that believe even the power of the Spirit of God The Spirit is called power Power it self as it were not that I deny the person of the Spirit thereby as if the Spirit were nothing but the energy or working of God that is not the meaning but he is called power because as it were he is nothing but power whatsoever he doth he doth powerfully and gloriously and effectually Angels work in little common outward things marke the difference between the assistance of the Spirit and of Angels The Angels are ministring spirits sent out to wait upon the Saints How do Angels work for us Angels make not prayers in us Angels never subdue one sin in me they can never bring peace to my conscience and soul Angels converse not in spiritual things but in outward things Angels keep thee that thou dash not thy foot against a stone they keep thee from breaking thy neck they keep fire from thine house but spiritual things are done by the Spirit of God the exceeding greatness of power is by the Spirit Therefore consider of this word be not such poor low-hearted creatures to be afraid of every ill and to be discouraged from going about any good thing I say consider the power that dwels in you and indeavor to give glory to God to magnify the blessed Spirit that works in you to admire it for the more you admire the Spirit the more vile you will be in your selves and the viler you are in your selves that you attribute all to the Spirit the more glory God shall have and then things will be as they should be in the best order for God and man Expositions and Observations on EPHESIANS 5. 1 2. Be ye therefore followers of God as dear children and walk in love c. THe Apostle in this Chapter and especially in that going before exhorts the Saints to walk worthy of their calling that is to walk humbly and meekly c. towards God and men and there he shews sometimes the good they should follow and the evil they should leave promiscuously which is meant by walking worthy of their calling And here in this first verse saith he I beseech you be followers of God as dear children He puts in this motive to all the holiness he speaks of before and after that as dear children of a blessed father they would hearken to him that they would hate all the evil and cleave to all the good he had proposed to them so that the Lesson is this That The Do ∣ ctrine Our spiritual priviledges should as much ingage us to holiness as they should help on our comfort My meaning is this you know in this wicked world wherein we are this is one Gospel way that we use and practise and have been taught that whensoever we came near the Lord especially then we should indeavor to raise up our souls by the consideration of our Gospel-priviledges and the relations between us and God When you and I come to pray we study as much as we can to look on him as a father and we do well and to look on our selves as sons and daughters as those that are in Christ as those that have their sins pardoned and covered in him to look on our selves as the Spouse and Wife of Christ And all the relations we can make out and all the priviledges that are laid down in Scripture we seek to own them whereby to get up our souls to some joy and comfort before the Lord and this is a good and blessed thing when we do so for the Lord would have his children as to live holily so he delights to see them live comfortably The Lord takes delight in the prosperity of his people But here now you and I miss we do this out of a kinde of Self-love because we would have comfort we make use of our priviledges and plead our relations but we should also make use of them to move us to holiness and to resist sin and evil as well as to raise us to comfort and consolation And thence it is that we are so oft foyled with sin because we walk as men as the children of men as the Scripture saith we forget in what a station God hath put us in what grace and glory we stand through Jesus Christ Therefore when we are walking and conversing in the world we look on our selves as men we think of our neighbours what they would have done in such a case and it may be we thinke of natural reason it may be of corrupt reason but we do not state our selves all the day as sons and daughters of God Man naturally doth not love to reflect upon himself which saith Dr. Preston is the difference between a man and a beast take two or three children it may be one is a Lords son and another the son of a Begger they reflect upon themselves you shall see by their carriage the poor childe carries himself respectively to the other the other carries himself disdainfully to him So all people every one hath a kinde of conclusion upon himself from natural considerations Such a one carries himself high he reflects so upon himself Why he thinks he is a man of such parts of such fortunes and breeding and feature and the like and he carries himself accordingly It is so with all mankinde Now if we would have the Spirit of God shine upon our souls and draw such conclusions alway that lie in our breasts that I am a son a daughter of God one in Christ married to Christ bone of his bone and
well as hearers There is one thing more which is here laid down in this Scripture that we must indeavor to do though when I speak of doing when we teach you any spiritual Gospel duty you must understand it in a Gospel way not as though I say we can do this or that but we through the grace of Christ may do any thing that is commanded in the Gospel Therefore go not home and say we are dead and can do nothing c. To what end are all these precepts laid on us but that we by the power of the holy Ghost may do them Therefore I say there is one thing more for us to do before we can come rightly to love the brethren truly there are many things but that that I am now upon is the foundation what is for the building of us up I meddle not with now for till we come to do this we cannot love at all we cannot go one step in this blessed work and that is it I shall indeavor to tell you now saith the Apostle Fulfil my joy and be like minded If there be any consolation in Christ or any comfort of love if there be any fellowship of the Spirit if there be any bowels and mercies The meaning is the Apostle exhorts them to these duties upon these motives to the following duties upon the foregoing motives As if he should say for the consolation sake that you feel in Christ Jesus that is sweet and dear for the comforts sake that you feel when you love how ful your souls are of comfort for the sake of that sweetness and pleasure that you have in the fellowship of the Spirit If there be any bowels of mercy in you any sweetness of the mercy of God in your souls or any workings of mercy or pity or affections in you grant me one desire at which I shall exceedingly rejoyce that is be like minded and have the same love c. The Apostle doth here as it is usually his manner when he exhorts to any thing he tells them not Do this or you shall be damned do this or else you are hypocrites or else the curse of God will fall on you for he carries that clearly in all his Epistles that there is no damnation to them that are in Christ and you are are not appointed unto wrath saith he but he presseth them unto it out of the sweetness and dearness of spiritual things that they apprehended Indeed to press them from arguments of hell or the curse that would have fastned a spirit of bondage on them To press them from worldly things those vanities would never have moved them therefore he takes the choisest things always as Iob saith I spake to my servants and to my wife and she answered not though I besought her for the children of my body that is the dearest thing between man and wife so the Apostle desires them by such things as these by the coming of the Lord Jesus that is the sweetest thing to a Saint saith he by these sweet and dear things I talk not of hell and it is in vain to talk of worldly motives but for the sweetness that is in spiritual things and for that price sake and the dearness that is of them and in them I beseech you grant me this request that is that ye Be like minded and have the same love That is mutual love each to other and be of one accord and of one minde This is the Motive that I Mutual love enjoyned shall open But how shall we come to love one another or to love mutually O saith he Let nothing be done through The means to attain it strife or vain glory but in lowliness of minde let each esteem other better then themselves I told you a man is to lay this as the foundation of his love to love because God loves him not because he is beloved of men Now that he may do so he must lay this also as a general rule in his soul by the grace of Christ that he account himself and lookt on himself as less then any other of the Saints every man must account another better then himself A man must look upon himself nay I say more he must be content that others look upon him as the least Saint or else he will never love his brethren aright Beloved this above all things I finde it may be you finde more to be the greatest enemy to love high-mindedness that you look upon your selves either as the greatest of Saints you think you are some body or else you look upon your selves as of the second form near to the greatest Therefore you shall observe by experience that when you come to love any Saint if you finde that though he love you yet if he love another better and account more of the Image of God in â—â—other then in you you alway account that love no better then hatred you say such a man hates you why so because he loves three or four better then you This is pride of heart in a man he had as lieve a man should hate him as love one Saint in the world better or before him it is a sign of a devillish heart If there be a Saint or two in the Family or a woman or a servant in the Congregation that is more respected then he he thinks such a one doth not love him he concludes I am not beloved There is such a desperate pride as pride is a desperate thing alway in spiritual and in earthly things in the heart of man that makes him so desperate that if he be not loved to the height above all others that he accounts all love hatred You will not be right till you come to this that Paul saith 1 Cor. 15. I am the least of all Saints saith he and 1 Tim. 1. 7. I am the greatest of all sinners you will never be in a right frame in a Gospel frame to love your brethren till when you look on sinners you account your selves the greatest and when you look on Saints you reckon your selves the least Therefore this is a plain short Lesson I mean not to speak much of it but truly it needs a large comment on your hearts it needs a great deal of setting home upon your spirits Therefore let us every one look to our selves in this let us consider our condition my condition that I stand in and yours where you are Is not this the frame of my soul and the disposition of your souls that you never love another nor never esteem anothers love for both go together in a proud heart unless he look principally upon you â—â—â—ve all others Beloved it is much for thee and me if we understand our selves what we are and rightly judge of our selves and our course and how things are really in us and before the eyes of him that searcheth the hearts it is much for me if the poorest Saint give me but a smile or
a good look yet this is our disposition if the Saints do not observe us if one go by and do not observe us in the street and put not off his hat and speak and give us idle visitations when he knows not what to do he loves us not It is a great deal if a Saint do but come over the threshold or look upon me in the street This is that that breeds endless quarrels for they are here put together Strife and Vain glory and the like for thou wilt be alway like the Salamander feeding upon some quarrel for every man naturally hath some one thing that he feeds on principally children feed on one cate more then another and so do men some upon Husbandry some upon Navigation some upon Policy every one upon one thing or other All men have some one thing that carries the stream of their hearts some Professors the very stream of their spirits goes in quarrelling with others they no sooner end a quarrel with one Saint but they begin another they can no more live without jangling and quarrelling and strife then the Salamander can live without fire This is the reason a proud heart therefore can never close with the Saints it cannot be content with a little measure of love from the Saints A Saint if he be as he should be can love though he be not loved and can rejoyce wonderfully if he have the least measure of love from others The Lord make this short word spiritual and powerful to thee and me If this lesson were rightly learned a world of division among the Saints would cease Expositions and Observations on HEBREWES 12. 18 19 20 c. For ye are not come unto the mount that might be touched and that burned with fire nor unto blackness and darkness and tempest And the sound of a trumpet and the voyce of words which voyce they that heard intreated that the word should not be spoken to them any more For they could not endure that which was commanded and if so much as a beast touch the mountaine it shall be stoned or thrust through with a dart And so terrible was the sight that Moses said I exceedingly fear and quake But ye are come unto Mount Sion and unto the City of the living God the heavenly Ierusalem and to an innumerable company of Angels To the general assembly and Church of the first born which are written in heaven and to God the Judge of all and the spirits of just men made perfect And to Jesus the Mediator of the new Covenant and to the blood of sprinkling that speaketh better things then that of Abel See that ye refuse not him that speaketh for if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth much more shall not we escape if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven THe Apostle in these words doth compare The old and new Testament compared the old Testament the old Covenant with the new or if you will the estate of the Saints under the old Covenant of Sinai with the glorious estate of the Saints under the new Covenant Therefore he tells them Ye are not come to that mountaine that burned with fire that mountain that might be touched you are not set under the old Covenant that was terrible in which there was nothing but that that was terrible that brought horror upon all that feared God in it but ye are Come to mount Sion to the glorious state in the new Testament and there is nothing but what is amiable and what is beautiful for that is it that I mean to pitch on you shall observe in the description of the Saints in the old Testament under the old Covenant I mean not the Books of the old Testament I suppose you know what I mean in that Proposition I say there was nothing in all Gods administration with them but it was full of terror it was terrible it begat horror in them and there is nothing in the state of a Saint that is rightly setled in the Gospel but what is throughly amiable and beautiful and therefore you shall see how the Apostle reckons them First for the old he saith they were come but to a Mount that might be touched that is an earthly mountain a mountain or hill as one of our hills And that burned with fire that was terrible And there was blackness and darkness and storm and tempest covering the heavens and the hill this was terrible And there was the sound of a Trumpet you know that signifies war And there was a terrible voyce of words also and so terrible that they that heard it intreated that they might hear it no more And the Lord was so strict that if but a beast touch but the hill that was black and dark he was to be stoned or thrust through with a dart he was to be killed nay Moses himself that was to be the Mediator of the people in that Testament he did exceedingly fear and quake So that there is nothing in that old Covenant of works that God saith is done away Heb. 8. there was nothing in the old Testament but what was terrible and full of horror To come a little more particular there is nothing in the state of a Professor who is yet on Mount Sinai as many Professors are who are not yet dead but alive to the Law they are not free-men they are not sons and daughters they have not the principles of the Gospel clearly wrought in them I say those people take them in the bulk and frame of their profession there is nothing in their whole life in all the course of their profession but what is ful of horror and terror If they look upon God they see him more or less as an angry Iudg ready to stand at the catch to consume them If they look on grace in them that is so little that they continually conclude that they are hypocrites If they look on sin they look every moment when God will be avenged on them because of it If they look on affliction they say Now God hath found me out I knew it would be so that the wrath of God would be on me If they look on Christ saith he He doth not belong to me and the Promises are not mine A man that is a Professor on Mount Sinai as far as he walks in the Covenant of works or as it were by the Covenant of works so far of necessity his soul within is as Mount Sinai was without that is full of blackness and darkness and storms and tempest inevitably and unavoidably it will be so Therefore clearly this is the reason of all the troubles and horrors and terrors and uncomfortableness of your spirits because you have one foot on Mount Sinai you are not come up to Pauls pitch I through the Law am dead to the Law you are not dead to the Law you are not delivered from it I mean the Law as it is a Covenant of
own mercies as Ionah saith to imbrace some lust or other either to imbrace the world or to fall to wantonness or drunkenness or any thing else and so to bargain as Esau that sold all his blessed title in the new Testament and in Jesus Christ for a mess of pottage Beware of that prophaneness for prophaneness is not onely when men commit gross evils as we say but this is a prophane man though he be a Professor and walk civilly that though but in his heart is willing to exchange the blessed estate that God hath called him to for the best happiness in the world There are many prophane men that are not whoremongers and drunkards but are ready every day if the devil come to cheapen to give up their birthright for a mess of pottage Take heed you sell it not if you did understand it rightly you would not sell it for ten thousand worlds that condition and happiness that God hath called you to All the things in the world that can be presented to you are nothing to the peace of the Kingdom of heaven be they what they will in themselves and yet you hanâ—er after ambition or lusts or somewhat and go sell your birthright for a root of bitterness for a mess of pottage for base things I say and I am sure there is no Saint here that knows what the happiness of a Christian in the new Testament is but will say so that all the glory and riches and happiness in the world is no more in comparison of the riches and happiness of a man estated in Christ in the new Testament then a mess of pottage is compared with an inheritance Therefore beware of it desire the Lord to deliver you from a prophane heart Thirdly here is another Use that the Apostle 3. To encourage weaklings makes of it therefore this should encourage poor weak Professors that are every day ready to faint Wherefore saith he lift up the hands that hang down and the feeble knees and make strait steps to your pathes least that which is lame go out of the way The meaning is poor souls that are beaten out as it were as a ship in the sea all the week with temptations and afflictions and injuries and reproaches and threatnings and persecutions that their hands almost fall that they are ready to say as David I have washed my hands in innocencie in vain This is the way to keep up thy spirit Labor as Paul prays Phil. 1. to know the riches of thy calling to understand the glorious condition that God hath called thee to here I speak not of that in heaven hereafter but the glorious estate here if thou hadst eyes to see it and a heart to judg of it then you would not be so tormented all the week long with a few temptations and afflictions and so be ready to give up as David said I shall one day perish by the hands of Saul so I shall one of these short days prove an hypocrite a prophane man I am so haunted with temptations and so followed with sins and lusts No beloved study that blessed estate what Mount Sion what the heavenly Ierusalem is that City of the living God that God hath called you to and that will support thee Then that I may conclude Lastly this is the use 4. To study peaceableness the Apostle would have us make of it to follow peace with all men and holiness without which no man shall see see God That is if you do understand aright your spiritual condition the happiness of it which is unspeakable then surely you will be peaceable people you will be at peace with all men for this is a general truth to me that our frowardness doth generally arise from some distemper of our own souls within I mean when a man sees that God is angry with him he is angry with others that is certain alway if God look strangely upon him he will look strangely upon others if God quarrel with him he will quarrel with others but if God smile upon the soul and shed his love into the heart and set his love upon him he will not be angry with any that are without I mean with a carnal anger that is the reason that when a mans ways please God the stones of the street shall be at peace with him Did you ever see the stones of the street angry with you but the meaning is when a mans ways are cross with God and he hath a guilty conscience a guilty soul hath no true peace he is ready almost to fall out with the stones in the street he quarrels with his servant with his horse with every thing because he hath an unquiet spirit within when a man pleaseth God the stones shall be at peace with him that is he shall be at peace with every thing Why so because there is an infinite unspeakable quiet in his own soul That is the reason we have so many Professors among us that are so bitter and cruel to others some they call Presbyters and some Independents and divers other Professors you may pick them out in every Congregation that are so sharp and terrible to others if they cross them or dissent from them never so little What is the reason because there are abundance of Professors that have one foot on Mount Sinai they walk by the Covenant of Works they have patched a feined rotten peace in them with God in Christ and so many times there is blackness and darkness within therefore they are ready to wrangle and quarrel with others without But God hath called us to Mount Sion where is that where the swords are turned into Pruning hooks and the speares into Ploughshares sighing and sorrow is gone away and there is no ravenous beast there meaning the glorious estate of the Saints in the purity of the light of the Gospel all our ravenous spirits shall be taken away for it is impossible that soul that hath the love of God shed into it and the peace of God rightly planted in it it is impossible but that soul should be milde and calm and meek and merciful and loving and courteous to all and be at peace with all and peaceable to all And for holiness Follow holiness saith the Apostle this would make you holy if you did understand your condition rightly O if you were perswaded that God did love you from eteruity and that his Son did die for you and that you and he are as really one as he is one with his Father and that all the treasures that are in Christ are yours c. this would inevitably work in us a holy frame of heart and disposition Therefore the Apostle usually calls on us to be holy from such motives I beseech you by the mercies of God and by the consolations of the Spirit do this and that and leave that and the other evil That is the reason we are lame in holiness because our principles are so
confounded and the Gospel of Christ is not spiritually and rightly and orderly and distinctly planted in us or else we would be more holy and look on sin in another manner then ever and hate the appearance of it and cleave to that which is good These were the Lessons that I thought of from this Scripture Desire God to inlarge them when you come home for Truths use to breed in the soul Therefore the Spirit of God is compared to a Bird the Spirit sate on the waters as the Bird doth on the nest to hatch her yong The Spirit of God with reverence will hatch such truths as this in the hearts of his children that though it be confused and rude in the beginning yet the Lord by his holy Spirit may break it out to a glorious and powerful light to our souls Expositions and Observations on 1 PETER 1. 9 10 11 12. Receiving the end of your faith even the salvation of your souls Of which salvation the prophets have enquired and searched diligently c. Which things the Angels desire to look into THe Apostle speaks of the salvation that Godhath given unto us and Christ hath purchased for us in the New Testament and he saith it is such a glorious salvation that all the prophets in old time they have been groping after it they have spoken much of it but understood little of what they said but spake for our sakes that is principally for us and the very Angels desire to look into that salvation The Apostle sets out the glory of that salvation thus the prophets inquired after it and the angels desire to look into it So the word then briefly is this that The very angels of God they doe earnestly desire to know and understand the mysteries of the Gospell the salvation that God hath given to sinners by the Gospell The Angels are wondrously taken with the knowledg The desire of the Angels after the mysteries of the Gospel of the glorious mysteries of the Gospell True it is for themselves they are not more saved after the manner as men are but yet the glory of it is so great and the glory of God by it that the very angels desire to look into it the Angels study it Now how do they study it Compare this with that Ephes 3. 8 9 10. Vnto me saith the Apostle God hath given this grace that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God c. To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be made known by the Church the manifold wisdom of God The Angels no doubt know that that we cannot comprehend and they have a great deal of that intuitive knowledg as we say but this I would teach you that the Angels are willing by the Church that is by Gospell preaching by the ordinances of God set up in the Church they are willing to learn and by the help of them to prie into the glorious mysteries of the Gospell Not only the good Angels they are present here Both good and bad Angels that is certain waiting upon the Saints but also the evill angels that is the devills they desire to look into the Gospell they do learn the mysteries of the Gospell by Gospell ordinances by preaching For good and bad Angels are of the same nature by creation though some fell and others did not This mystery of the Gospell was hid from Angels from good and evil Angels And though they know diverse things of God and their own happinesse yet the glorious things of God in the Gospell and New Testament they are content to come down among us and hear and learn of the Church and of the ordinances We are not able to comprehend what senses Angels have or that we shall have when we are gone hence to the Lord. Therefore there are two or three things that we should learn from it Vse 1 Me thinks it should be a generall motive to every one of us to be a little more diligent and carefull to To be diligent hearers of the mysteries of the Gospel hear the mysteries of the Gospel when they are opened to us If angels come down as it were and learn this wisdom by the Gospell who is so great but he should stoop to prie into these glorious mysteries And if the devil though he learn it that he may the more dishonour God by it hearken to every tittle and use of it and improve it how carefull should we be If the good Angels learn though their salvation be not by it but only the glory and the mystery and beauty of it how much more should I hearken whose salvation or damnation it is for ever If the Devil hearken to every doctrine and use that he may dishonour God and hinder my soul how much more should I hearken that I may honour God and resist the devil and save my soul Vse 2 Secondly learn hence another thing that is wisdom and watchfulnesse against Satan Truly the devil To learn Caution against Satan was a gross fool in the times of Popery I mean there was but little preaching therefore he had but little knowledge of the things of the Gospell but as the light of the Gospell grew clear so the devill grew wiser And he hath laid aside all the temptations that he had a hundred yeers ago for he can never catch men that way for the generality and now he hath gotten spirituall temptations for as the Gospell breaks out for the enlightening of the Saints to bring glory to God and save their souls so the Divel gets more light and knowledge whereby he may more dishonour God and damnifie the souls of men The devil is the same now as he was then to dishonour God and damn souls and the way generally is the same to bring men to sin but for the speciall manner of it the devil drives a new trade nothing like as before before it was to invocate angels and dead Saints that was grosse Now you think you are safe because these things are gone but the devil hath got the Spirituall knowledge of every lesson you hear and he knows how to beat you with your own weapons the divel hath temptations on the right hand and on the left now he brings men to be puffed up with spirituall knowledge he hears pretious things in the Gospel and an intelligble man is much taken with notions and the devil takes him that way He sees the doctrine of justification breaking out and it is glorious and men are taken with it therefore in way of thankfulness men shall swagger as the world doth and whereas before they were something like professors even to the world now they shall walk in all loosness and wantonness I say not that all do so but there are some and wo
we may die for them But when our Bibles have gone through the hands of Papists so many hundered yeers when a man shall come to die for it he is afraid that such a thing may be crept into the text a thousand such thoughts of Athiesme will come upon a man but when a man can say this is Christ crucified and Christ pouring out of his spirit let the particles and the words run as they will this is the maine that will hold As the Gospell was intended and designed for simple men more then others so with reverence the Gospell is a more simple plain thing then most men in the world conceive The Gospell needs not the thousand part of the distinctions and definitions that the schoolmen have and that men multiply It is a simple story concerning Christ crucified and how the Holy Ghost was poured upon men and this was preached by fishermen as God gave them utterance and it was prophesied of before If Religion be a simple thing taught by fisher-men with the pouring out of the Spirit then there need not all those disputes concerning the Arts c. For my part I think learning to be a very good thing to perfect a mans naturalls but I think on the other side that a man that savingly and clearly knows Christ crucified and the pouring out of the spirit he is the fittest man in the world to be a preacher We should know things a thousand fold better and clearer then we do if we would judg of things as God judgeth of them if we would use the language of the Scripture and the notions of the holy spirit in the Scripture If we would know a Saint from a sinner as I said a man that is the Lords and another that is not this is the maine way the chief essentiall difference the one hath the spirit the other hath not It is not so much whether yonder man pray or fast or preach or repeat or whether he doth many good outward morall things but whether he hath the spirit of God though it be now almost a ridiculous thing to name the spirit of God We should I say distinguish man from man by the spirit And labour in a speciall manner to assure our selves that we have the spirit of God We should not rest in this that I have left such sins or I do such duties but go on still till I come up to this that with all humility and thankfulnesse I may say God hath given to me of his holy spirit the spirit of Jesus Christ dwells in my heart Paul was humble and modest enough in his expressions yet he could boldly say he had the spirit We have the earnest of the spirit And Iohn could say so of other Saints Ye have an unction or an annointing 1 Iohn 2. and that was the blessed spirit Truly beloved it is a comfortable thing in respect of himself for a poor creature to see many stumble at the word of God whereas if we would resolve to be wise in the wisdom of God and to speak of things as the Scripture speaks to look on things as the Scripture looks on them to use those phrases and expressions and those notions we should understand many mysteries in godlinesse which now are little lesse then stumbling blocks to us because there is a kind of thwarting wisdom in us that is crosse to that God is now I told you about to exalt the spirit yet not in a way contrary to the Scripture but the spirit in the Scripture I mean Therefore learn this lesson to strive for this as the chief thing to finde the spirit of God in you dwelling and working in you because as in the Old Testament there was one great promise to wit of the Messias the Lord Jesus that was the great promise and all other promises belonged to that So in the New Testament there is but one great promise the promise of the father as Christ calls it and that is the pouring out of the Spirit Therefore as the Lord hath been teaching us of late yeers to know his Son Christ crucified the doctrine of justification where our righteousnesse lies c. So let us not think these speculations enough but take the other maine thing that is as great as this the doctrine of the spirit That I may as well finde the spirit working in me as to know without that Jesus Christ died for me If Religion were stated aright I mean Christianity Christian Religion under the New Testament not in books but the life of Christianty it would be to know Christ crucified and to enjoy the spirit of Christ that when we read the New Testament and cast up the bill of account when we have done there is the sum of all the two hinges that all goes on Therefore take heed of being deceived by notionall knowledge of things onely without you though it be never so glorious For if thou be a Saint thou hast the Spirit of God really dwelling in thee in its measure as truly as in the Lord Iesus Christ as it is in Ephes 1. the latter end the spirit that works in them that believe O the spirit of God is a glorious thing It is that that not only makes the grand difference between a Saint and a sinner but even in a godly man the spirit is all in all in Religion Let the spirit but stir in him though he be never so dark yet all is light before him Let the spirit come and comfort him though he be in chains of Iron though he be in the greatest misery in this world yet he can sing Psalms Let the spirit be given him and then not only faith and the promises but graces and common providences every thing speaks the love of God to his soul But let the spirit withdraw from him if the Lord take away his spirit but for a moment even from the best Saint his body and his soul are no better If I may speake it then a meer carrion I allude to that of Iames The body without the soul is dead So take the body and soul without the spirit of God it is dead Dead What is that Thus take a living body that I may follow the comparison a little there is no living body but he can do something though some can do more then others yet every living body can do something he can sit or walk or talk c. And as he can do some good so he can resist some evil If a man be dying almost if you go to poure water in his throat he can turn his head aside But let the soul be away he can neither do any good I speak now of naturall civill good or resist evil So it is with the soul let the Lord take away his spirit and we are quite flat Let the Lord propose any good work to do let any part of the will of God be presented there is no stirring at all in the soul
towards it the heart lyes gaping and is dead Let any lust or sin come any temptation though it be never so poor and feeble there is no resistance there is an inrode into the soul without any opposition let pride or frowardness or filthiness or covetousness and worldliness come there is nothing to resist it because the life of the soul is away which is the spirit of God And is not this an excellent thing then for a man to have the spirit of God dwelling in him that when good is proposed to him the spirit may as it were switch him It is a homely expression but I have found it by experience As a jade with a good switch is set on to the journey or to his businesse so when the soul of a man hath somewhat within to switch him to cause him to close with good things to lay hold on them to attempt them at least Whereas when the spirit is away there is no stirring the soul is as flat and as dead as water in a stinking ditch This is the excellency of the spirit Therefore you that have it prize it There are some that if they had it again as once they had they would prize it and praise God for it and would now give a world for it Therefore you that have these stirrings of the spirit in you to make you close with good and to resist evil in some measure bless God and praise his name for it That is the thing I drive at that you may see the use and worth and excellency of the Spirit of God in your souls When the Spirit of God is away from the soul all the seals of Gods Love and the signs of his Favor they are cut off at one dash as it were I mean thus when the Spirit of God dwels in the soul you could read the love of God in every Ordinance you could see it in every Grace and in every Promise in the Word of God in every thing and you could see one while your election with joy and another while Gods everlasting love with joy and another while the death of Christ and another while your union with him another while your Redemption and Reconciliation and Gods Love sealed in all these Nay in every creature you could taste the Love of God in your cloathes and your meat and every thing But let the Spirit of God be gone and all these are gone Take all Promises and Mercies and Sacraments they seal not one spark of the Love of God but they are all dead speechless things that signifie and speak no comfort at the best and it may be horror that a man may read I had almost said his Reprobation in that which a few hours before he could have read his election in and those Scriptures all along that he could sweetly have seen the Will of God in and could say that which neither eye hath seen nor ear hath heard nor hath entred into the hart of man that I have seen he can shut his Bible and say and almost swear that he understands not one tittle in it That soul that when he had the Spirit could spring with joy unspeakable and full of glory when he came before the Lord to call upon him either in publick or in private and could pour his soul into his fathers bosom that could have prayed a whole year if he had had time and strength to continue he is not able now to speak one word to the Lord. And more then so he is not now deprived only of all light of all Knowledg of all assurance of all comfort of all strength either to do good or to resist evil but there is positive horror in the heart positive fear and terror and darkness a bondage to unbelief seizing upon him That as our Lord saith The Spirit is like winde that no man knows whence it comes or whither it goes So he feels a misery in his soul that he knows not whence it comes or where it will end As it was said of the Powder plot the Powder Treason that there should be a blow given that none should know whence it was so he sees a blow given to his soul and the life of it and all that is good and excellent in it and he knows not whence it is he can say that his soul is no other then a plain hell for there is no positive evil in hell but it is there and there is no privative evil no evil of deprivation of any thing that is good but he feels it there so that in all our Religion our Graces and Duties and Assurances and Evidences the Spirit of Iesus Christ is the life of all Therefore no wonder that David who was a Type of a Gospel Christian should say Create in me O Lord a new heart andrenew and restore thy holy Spirit as if he had said since thy holy Spirit went away there is an annihilation all that is in me is annihilated He doth not say mend and repair but create I see not so much as a stump of Grace a root or a habit or any thing but all is pulled up and thou must create in me a right spirit Therefore learn that the life of all your Comfort and Assurance and Profession and Graces and Duties and all is the Spirit of God It is but the turning of Gods hand to say Come back my holy Spirit from such a soul leave him but one three hours and then he will be according as I have told you therefore saith the Apostle we are not debtors to the flesh but to the Spirit If ever you finde comfort in an Ordinance you owe thanks to the Spirit if ever you have a little assurance of Gods love whom will ye thank for it Ye are no debtors to the flesh he doth not mean you are not debtors to sin there is no man but he knows that he owes nothing to sin but saith he not to the flesh that is principally to any thing that is not the Spirit to fleshly wisdom to natural parts to our best abilities and endeavours If ever you have gotten any thing by Sabbaths or Sermons or the company of the Saints it was not from your own wisdom or pains but you are debtors to the Spirit of God it is the Spirit that wrought it therefore prize the Spirit of God you that have it O if you could but borrow the eyes of poor souls that had it once and have it not O how happy creatures would you think you are notwithstanding all outward miseries because Jesus Christ by his holy Spirit dwels in your hearts but we know not the worth of it till we want it and then we can prize it and would give a world for it And then labor to please the blessed Spirit take heed of provoking and grieving of him the Spirit is a more dainty Spirit then you are aware of you may easily vex and grieve and fret it do not dally with sin Christians
blessed power and strength to do that it teacheth therefore saith the Apostle Sin shall not have dominion over you because ye are not under the Law but under Grace Expositions and Observations on EPHESIANS 3. 20. Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think according to the power that worketh in us THe Apostle ends his Prayer for the Ephesians in a general manner with a kinde of Thanksgiving Now to him that is able to do exceeding abundantly according to the power that worketh in us According to the power that worketh in us There is a mighty power that worketh in the Saints and you shall see that power Ephes 1. 19. saith he I desire that you may know what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward that believe according to the working of his mighty power It is not weakness but power and not a small power but a mighty power a great power an exceeding great mighty power That worketh in you The Saints are strong creatures If you ask what this power is you shall see in the verse following The power which wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead and set him at his own right hand in heavenly places far above all principalities and powers c. That is the power of his holy Spirit that dwells in us greater is he that dwelleth in us then he that dwelleth in the world We have a greater power in us then can be from the world or hell against us And that power is illustrated here by the raising of Iesus from the dead and setting him up in heavenly places There was no active power that ever God expressed that can be compared to that of raising Christ from the dead It was a power and a great power and Gods power too to make this world and it is a power to preserve it but that power is not comparable to this when Jesus Christ was dead under the curse of the Law and under the wrath of God and under all our sins under the malice of men and under a great stone that was rowled on him and for a dead man to be raised up through all those oppositions of heaven and earth and hell and to be set in peace at the right hand of glory and majestie on high It must be an exceeding great power The Saints do not consider what strength they have If thou didst consider what strength thou hast in thee thou wouldest not be afraid to hear a Cross thou wouldst not be discouraged to attempt any work for God thou wouldest not be dismaied at the threatnings of men no nor at the temptations of the devil there is such an exceeding great and mighty power that works in them that believe This power is the power of the Spirit of God for that is the power of the most High the holy Ghost shall overshadow thee and the power of the most High shall come upon thee The holy Ghost is the power of God which dwelleth in the Saints And therefore my aime is to fasten that word on you and to shew you how you come short of that life and strength and grace that otherwise you might have for want of magnifying and exalting the Spirit of God which is the Conduit the Intelligencer that which brings light and life and strength to our souls from God The Spirit of God is lightly esteemed therefore we have little grace a low esteem of the Spirit will keep a Saint low all his days I thought to have instanced in a few things wherein you undervalue the Spirit One is that you do not hearken enough nor regard and observe enough the teaching of the Spirit of God and that is one cause why we are left to our selves and do so often miss the will of God For I know not according to the Covenant of Grace why a Saint should at any time miss the will of God but that he doth not observe his Leader For I will give you the Spirit saith Christ that shall lead you into all truth Now if you observe not this Leader this Teacher it is very just that you should be left to wander and go out of the way If a Christian would observe his way and observe his leader a Christian might easily finde when he is in and when he is out for truly if a man would ask himself Why did I miss the will of God so often since I have such a Teacher promised me and given me by Christ he must needs say that oftentimes I did not observe him I did not hearken to him I hearkened only to men and not to the Spirit of God And so he would easily finde when he began to give over harkning where he left the teaching of the Spirit for in my apprehension a Saint follows the holy Ghost with a kinde of sagacity if I may compare it with reverence just as we see the Dog follow the Hare there is something in Nature that the Dog knows which way the Hare went when a wiser creature knows not so there is something in a poor Saint that when all the wise men in the world know not which way God went a Saint can tell Onely the Dog may hunt upon a cold sent and think the Hare went that way and it grows colder and colder and he misseth So a Saint shall finde when he misseth the will of God that the Spirit of God hath not left him unless it be very rare as the Spirit left Christ to be tempted in the wilderness so he may leave thee to pull down thy pride and to humble thee Isay that is rare but ordinarily the Spirit leaves not thee but thou lettest goe thy leader and thou goest all the while on a cold sent A Saint though he headlong follows this or that conceit yet notwithstanding he may know when he comes to look upon himself surely I went upon a cold sent in those things though I followed them headlong and giddily it was not of the Spirit it was not the same teaching that I had ordinarily Therefore observe your leader hearken to the Spirit of God If God give you him as a master he expects that his children should learn and see when you go in the way of the Spirit of God and you may easily finde that if you will avoid headlongness and giddiness and rashness I speak not this as if the Spirit were contrary to the Word as some men to advance the Spirit set the Word and Spirit by the ears but the Spirit leads by the Word That which I chiefly intended to shew you was The power of the Spirit set out in four things to give you a few instances that you may have a little light to see the exceeding greatness of the power of the Spirit working in you I shall not shew in all respects nor in many as I might but onely in a few I will instance in these three or four things As first