to them that turn the grace of God into wantonnesse I am not able to tell my thoughts how fine the temptations of Satan are grown by this salvation by every Sermon he increaseth his knowledg and will to the end more and more and those temptations that take us now our children will laugh at them because knowledge shall increase Therefore take heed of pride and arrogancie walk humbly and hearken to advice for thou hast an enemy that learns more at one Sermon then thou dost at three Use 3 Another thing is this see what a glorious Jewel the Gospel is what a glorious pearl when the angels come To make us admire the glorious Pearl and riches of the Gospel down to study it The Angels in heaven see God and for ought I know they have as much happiness as ever they shall have they are sent down to the Saints to wait on them and that they that it concerns not should be so taken with it it must needs be a glorious Iewel Therefore some conceive that the Cherubins in the law there were two Cherubins over the Ark on the mercy seat one looking towards another God ordered it so so as they were prying as it were into the mercy seat and some conceive they were a type of the Angels prying into the glorious mysteries of the New Testament looking one at another and wondring as it were It is a glorious Jewel Therefore let us praise God for it and indeavour to use all means to keep it up Many devises the devil hath to pull it down though he get nothing but make himself more miscrable so there will not be such wanting still To instance in one take heed of Idolizing discipline and government that is so to give our selves up to seek a government that we care not what hindrance we do to the Gospel the while As there are some here among us in hindring the poor Welch Ministers from preaching to the people onely because they suspected them to be Independents this is but the beginning of sorrows if men may have their will for discipline and government we shall loose this Gospel which the Angels pry into discipline and government is good but we must not loose the Gospel for it keep up that And beloved if ever the Lord set peace among you think of those poor countries that have not this Iewel and Pearl If God raise men you may finde out some way or other whereby to maintaine them And it is more then allowing them maintenance for you are to stickle with that generation of wicked men that for every trifle and nicity hinder poor people from enjoying the Gospel and pretend either it may be he is not a Vniversity man he is no master of Arts it may be he hath Greek and Latine and not Hebrew though he be full of the Holy Ghost and yet the people must be starved Let us do what we can to prize and advance the Gospell hold it up before every soul If the Angels come down from heaven to prie into our Gospel how much should we prize it and not suffer people that we shall curse seven yeers hence that we blesse now that would couzen us of the Gospell be not cheated of the Gospel it is a precious Pearl it is all that this poor ruind tottered Kingdom hath left for peace and wealth are gone and there is a foundation of a new war laid only God hath kept up the Gospell in England as much as in any kingdom in the world Beware of men of wolves in sheeps cloathing beware of all the instruments of the devil that would beguile you and your poor children of this Iewel Vse 4 Lastly be forward and ready to every good work though it do not much concern you Truly there is a loveliness in To be ready to every good work good works though they concern not me and my good yet I should have a hand in them I mean though they concern not my calling There is a disposition in men that they wil meddle with nothing but their end is their profit or credit The Angels prie into our Gospel what have they to do with it They love to see the wonderfull wisdome of God in it and to see Christ woing sinners and take them in his Arms it is nothing to them yet they rejoyce that poor sinners should be saved and they rejoyce to see the justice of God and the wisdom and mercy of God how sweetly they be reconciled and glorified in his Gospel So let us when any good work is to be done though I and my family be not concerned in it yet let us go among them and do what we can This is the Plague of this age that many are about doing of good that is certain but there are some wheeles of their own ends in it I cannot say it of every Officer but in any Office or place in the City you shall have some that have wheels of their own ends that move all and if that be away all stands still Let us love good works for good works sake for the beauty of the work Expositions and Observations on IUDE 19. Sensual not having the Spirit I Am not now in an Expounding way further then I must of necessity to shew who these are that are said not to have the Spirit but onely I shall pick out a Lesson for you you may easily see if you reade the Chapter they were a generation of Professors of whom Peter speaks much They despised Magistracy they were spots in their feasts of love clouds carried about with every winde Wells without water Trees whose fruit was withered twice dead and plucked up by the roots for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness You see what their qualities were and you may see what their misery should be compare Jude with 2 Pet. 2. Among the rest of their properties this is one they have not the Spirit This is the last of all that the Apostle names They are sensual not having the Spirit And he usually reserves the greatest things last in his eloquence and way of speaking Now then the Lesson is this That The greatest difference that I know in all the Book of God between Saints and Sinners is that the one hath the Spirit and the other hath not There are a thousand differences even in Scripture but they are none of them so substantial as this that a Saint is a man that hath the Spirit and a Sinner is one that hath not the Spirit one that is without the Spirit Therefore the Apostles when they were Preaching and met with any Disciples and Professors they asked presently Have ye received the Spirit It is not meant onely nor chiefly of the common gifts of the Spirit but certainly it is meant principally of the spirit of holiness Have you received the holy Ghost or no So our Lord Christ speaking of the world and the Church to see what a blessed thing it is to see
heavenly things in the language of Scripture a thing that if we could grow up to we should overthrow a thousand distinctions in Divinity we mistake things taking them in the old Notion John 14. what is the difference between the world and the people of Christ I will send thc Spirit which the world cannot receive The world are men that have not nor cannot receive the Spirit of God and the Saints are those that do and have received the Spirit of God You read in 2 Joh. 2. 18. of men that had made a great profession that were faln off that were faln away saith he They went out from us because they were not of us for if they had been of us they would have continued with us There are many faln away saith he but they were not of us Why What are you might some say We saith he have received an unction an anoynting and it abides with us And ye need not that any should teach you that will teach you all things They that fall off they were not of us Why they have not the Spirit of God therefore they were not of us So when the Apostles preached sometimes it is said that some of them believed and some did not and at other times it is said when they preached that the Spirit of God did fall upon the people that is they were converted they were born again they were made Saints So in Rom. 8. where the Apostle speaks of being in Christ and out of Christ which is the great point of all and salvation and damnation hangs upon it This is his language they that are in Christ walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit So in the language of the spirit of God the maine thing that belongs to a Saint it is not as we ordinarily account it there are a hundred things that we call Religion that God doth not A drunkard may be stricken with terrour in hearing the word and we say such a one is converted and it may be not and there are hundreds of other people that may pray twice a day and hear Sermons and repeat them and out of a naturall principle of devotion may have affections this is not Christianity or Gospel Religion There are abundance of professours among us that the Holy Ghost will not own because they have not the spirit Therefore the maine way whereby we may judge of a Saint or a sinner is whether he have the spirit of God in him or no. O such a one doth great things he prayes and hears and reads and disputes much I but hath he the spirit or no But you will say How shall I look for that How shall I know that I will tell you how A man may know the spirit The Spirit in us to be known by its own evidence in himself clearly by the evidence of the same spirit And a man that hath the spirit may know the spirit in another by the spirit There is a kind of Sagacity among the Saints whereby they having the spirit are able though not expresly and clearly to behold the spirit in another We are the sons of God but the world knows us not worldly men know not the Saints from Schismaticks and Hereticks and usually spirituall people receive those names from the world Schismaticks and Hereticks and the like But a man that hath the spirit of God he can see as clearly as a natural man can with his eyes How can a poor lamb know the dam among a thousand There is a Sagacitie in nature and so there is here in grace they have the same spirit As when Elizabeth and Mary were talking the Babe in Elizabeths Womb leaped hearing the words of Mary that then had the Lord Jesus conceived in her I give you but a little resemblance from naturall things The Saints know it and their fellowship is in the spirit Our communion is in God and not in such a Covenant or meerly in outward duties but our communion is with the Father and with his son Jesus Christ and in the spirit with all his Saints Therefore labor for the spirit of God Truly God is now coming I am confident it is his designe in these latter times to exalt his spirit and to pull and throw down every thing that exalts it self against the spirit that stands in his light and Eclipseth the glory of it And though the world which cannot receive the spirit of truth do either blaspheme or else do set little by it yet surely it is the will of God that all his children should honour it These thousand yeers learning and naturall parts and morall good works and supersticious good works have been exalted Now in these later times Our Sun shall be turned into darkness and our Moon into blood That is as the learned * Calvin interpret it all the glorious things that we had before the pouring out of the spirit that we made Suns and Moons of God will blast them I speak not against learning simply it is usefull especially in a Common-wealth but as far as learning intrencheth upon the spirit of God God will blast it learned men shall be laid by as Cyphers God will blast their labours that we might honour the spirit There is one place that comes to my heart with much sweetness Psal 119. 96. I have seen an end of all perfection but thy law is very broad We have seen an end of all perfection of learning of common gifts of naturall parts we have seen God blast these one after another but Gods law is very broad The morall law the law of the letter is broad much more the law of the spirit of life in Christ that is extolled more and more therefore all must down to extoll the spirit of God Truly Religion is a hundred wayes mistaken by people I could give a hundred instances especially in your Catechismes where it is asked What is Religion It is such and such Christian Religion or Gospel Religion under the New Testament consists of two things Christ crucified and the pouring out of the spirit of God These are the two pillars of our Religion in the New Testament And this is all we have to preach to you and as far as any thing hath not relation to these two things it is not the Ministery of the Gospel it is not Gospel Religion We speak much of reformation and it is to be desired but among other errours in Religion this is one many think that the main point in Religion is the setting up of government whereas our main reformation is in pulling down and not in setting up for we have a world of institutions set up that will never hold And among those latter institutions that good people have set up I believe that there are not many will hold but these will the Doctrine of Christ crucified and the pouring out of Gods spirit And as many as tend to this and flow from this without scruple I think
we may die for them But when our Bibles have gone through the hands of Papists so many hundered yeers when a man shall come to die for it he is afraid that such a thing may be crept into the text a thousand such thoughts of Athiesme will come upon a man but when a man can say this is Christ crucified and Christ pouring out of his spirit let the particles and the words run as they will this is the maine that will hold As the Gospell was intended and designed for simple men more then others so with reverence the Gospell is a more simple plain thing then most men in the world conceive The Gospell needs not the thousand part of the distinctions and definitions that the schoolmen have and that men multiply It is a simple story concerning Christ crucified and how the Holy Ghost was poured upon men and this was preached by fishermen as God gave them utterance and it was prophesied of before If Religion be a simple thing taught by fisher-men with the pouring out of the Spirit then there need not all those disputes concerning the Arts c. For my part I think learning to be a very good thing to perfect a mans naturalls but I think on the other side that a man that savingly and clearly knows Christ crucified and the pouring out of the spirit he is the fittest man in the world to be a preacher We should know things a thousand fold better and clearer then we do if we would judg of things as God judgeth of them if we would use the language of the Scripture and the notions of the holy spirit in the Scripture If we would know a Saint from a sinner as I said a man that is the Lords and another that is not this is the maine way the chief essentiall difference the one hath the spirit the other hath not It is not so much whether yonder man pray or fast or preach or repeat or whether he doth many good outward morall things but whether he hath the spirit of God though it be now almost a ridiculous thing to name the spirit of God We should I say distinguish man from man by the spirit And labour in a speciall manner to assure our selves that we have the spirit of God We should not rest in this that I have left such sins or I do such duties but go on still till I come up to this that with all humility and thankfulnesse I may say God hath given to me of his holy spirit the spirit of Jesus Christ dwells in my heart Paul was humble and modest enough in his expressions yet he could boldly say he had the spirit We have the earnest of the spirit And Iohn could say so of other Saints Ye have an unction or an annointing 1 Iohn 2. and that was the blessed spirit Truly beloved it is a comfortable thing in respect of himself for a poor creature to see many stumble at the word of God whereas if we would resolve to be wise in the wisdom of God and to speak of things as the Scripture speaks to look on things as the Scripture looks on them to use those phrases and expressions and those notions we should understand many mysteries in godlinesse which now are little lesse then stumbling blocks to us because there is a kind of thwarting wisdom in us that is crosse to that God is now I told you about to exalt the spirit yet not in a way contrary to the Scripture but the spirit in the Scripture I mean Therefore learn this lesson to strive for this as the chief thing to finde the spirit of God in you dwelling and working in you because as in the Old Testament there was one great promise to wit of the Messias the Lord Jesus that was the great promise and all other promises belonged to that So in the New Testament there is but one great promise the promise of the father as Christ calls it and that is the pouring out of the Spirit Therefore as the Lord hath been teaching us of late yeers to know his Son Christ crucified the doctrine of justification where our righteousnesse lies c. So let us not think these speculations enough but take the other maine thing that is as great as this the doctrine of the spirit That I may as well finde the spirit working in me as to know without that Jesus Christ died for me If Religion were stated aright I mean Christianity Christian Religion under the New Testament not in books but the life of Christianty it would be to know Christ crucified and to enjoy the spirit of Christ that when we read the New Testament and cast up the bill of account when we have done there is the sum of all the two hinges that all goes on Therefore take heed of being deceived by notionall knowledge of things onely without you though it be never so glorious For if thou be a Saint thou hast the Spirit of God really dwelling in thee in its measure as truly as in the Lord Iesus Christ as it is in Ephes 1. the latter end the spirit that works in them that believe O the spirit of God is a glorious thing It is that that not only makes the grand difference between a Saint and a sinner but even in a godly man the spirit is all in all in Religion Let the spirit but stir in him though he be never so dark yet all is light before him Let the spirit come and comfort him though he be in chains of Iron though he be in the greatest misery in this world yet he can sing Psalms Let the spirit be given him and then not only faith and the promises but graces and common providences every thing speaks the love of God to his soul But let the spirit withdraw from him if the Lord take away his spirit but for a moment even from the best Saint his body and his soul are no better If I may speake it then a meer carrion I allude to that of Iames The body without the soul is dead So take the body and soul without the spirit of God it is dead Dead What is that Thus take a living body that I may follow the comparison a little there is no living body but he can do something though some can do more then others yet every living body can do something he can sit or walk or talk c. And as he can do some good so he can resist some evil If a man be dying almost if you go to poure water in his throat he can turn his head aside But let the soul be away he can neither do any good I speak now of naturall civill good or resist evil So it is with the soul let the Lord take away his spirit and we are quite flat Let the Lord propose any good work to do let any part of the will of God be presented there is no stirring at all in the soul
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
1. In dictating a world of prayers to us that you may see the greatness of his power what a world of prayers doth the Spirit of God put into thy heart that thou art never able to utter with thy mouth All the wisdom in the world cannot make one spiritual petition we may make forms of Prayer but now the Spirit of God that knoweth the minde of God as the Apostle saith that maketh prayers according to the will of God and he prayes with sighs and groans unutterable I speak to them that know the working of the Spirit how many thousand prayers doth God put into thy heart that it is impossible for thee to utter with thy mouth Thou canst not speak to God one petition of fourty that the Spirit puts into thy heart That some conceive to be the meaning of that in Rom. 8. The Spirit prays with sighes unutterable not because of our weakness but because of their strength and they are so numerous they are so many that when a poor Saint goes to pray one petition stops another and throngs it out that he cannot utter it If the Lord should hear only those prayers that thou makest with thy mouth thou wouldest be but a poor man but the Lord respects the prayers of the heart Therefore I say to have power to make one prayer and to have such innumerable sighes and groans in the soul too it must be an exceeding great power Secondly consider this how much the Spirit of 2. In supplying us when we pray not God doth for thee and in thee that thou never prayedst for nor never couldest pray for no not so much as in heart If the Lord did answer all the prayers of heart and tongue that we make throughout all the year a man would think that were a great matter but surely they are so few considering our wants and they are so confused and blinde that I am confident if God should deal with thy soul and mine according to our prayers all the year we should be miserable creatures all our lives God exerciseth us to pray and many of them he answers in their kinde and he is pleased with our obedience in every thing but surely God hath a higher rule of doing us good and the Spirit of God works in a more methodicall and wise and merciful and blessed way then we can pray I have sometimes wondred that God hath made promises to answer many prayers that we make but I wonder more that God should grant things that we pray not for This is the exceeding greatness of his power Thirdly consider the exceeding greatness of his 3. By teaching us inwardly power in this respect in his teaching how the Spirit of God teacheth his people and servants he teacheth them above what they are taught outwardly by men As thus Cast with thy self suppose thou hadst every Sermon that thou hast heard in thy life and every Lecture that thou hast heard on the week days and on the Lords day that thou hadst them in order and method suppose they were written in thy heart and fresh in thy memory that thou didst understanding and remember every Sermon that thou hast heard which no man doth a man would think such a one to be a very knowing man Truly if thou hadst it so thou mightest be a miserable confused blinde man for all that for all that ever thou hast heard preached thou mightest be a blinde creature for alas our teaching comes with so much weakness and dross with it and one saith and another unsaith and if we consider it in a natural way we shall never be made knowing men by all outward teaching in the world But now the Spirit of God comes in and he is pleased indeed to make use of it that we shall teach outwardly but alas the Spirit of God reads such a Lecture in the heart of a Saint and clears things and orders things and assures things and settles things that are right and discovers things that are not and inlargeth and sweetens and quickens them that it may be a man in hearing one Sermon of an hour long may be taught more then another man in hearing Sermons seven years together This is the exceeding greatness of the power of the Spirit of God that truly beloved I have often thought with my self I speak not to disparage our teaching and your hearing but our coming to teach and you to hear it is as your sending your little children to School to keep their cloaths clean and to keep them from play they learn nothing in a manner for your money onely they are obedient to their Parents and are quiet and are in the School where teaching is So you come to hear and we to teach but all our teaching in a manner is by the Spirit of God Therefore it is a wonderful thing to see how quickly the Spirit of God will make a Schollar ripe how in a quarter of a year nay in a moneth almost the Spirit of God will fill him with all spirituall learning whereas the best preacher in the world let him Preach concisely and exactly in a natural way he shall not teach him the tenth part Nay we reach you we preach it may be four or five Sermons and we open it as well we can poor earthen creatures and when we come to look on it a quarter of a year after we finde that those notions that it may be were so confused and poor while we were teaching you that there is a glorious piece made in your souls by the Spirit of God though our Notes when they were done were scarce worth the burning we are so poor and frail in teaching and you in your outward hearing therefore there is an exceeding great power that works in you that believe Fourthly and lastly for I speak this to inhaunce and 4 By working our works in and for us advance the Spirit of God as Paul saith we are not debters to the flesh but to the Spirit you ow more to the Spirit then you are aware of consider in all the good that you do in all the good works that you do how wonderful passive you are in the doing of them We have a saying It holds true I gainsay it not in a sort that a man in conversion is passive and afterwards he is active that is God in a mans conversion works on a man as a dead creature only he is rational but he suffers and works not with God but when he is converted then a man hath a principle of life God works and man works man works with God and it is a true comparison we were then passive now we are active But in respect of the principle by which we move and walk truely a Christian may say I am altogether passive in a manner in all that I do God carries a mans tongue to speak and his hands to work and his feet to walk God carries a man in good many times and
towards it the heart lyes gaping and is dead Let any lust or sin come any temptation though it be never so poor and feeble there is no resistance there is an inrode into the soul without any opposition let pride or frowardness or filthiness or covetousness and worldliness come there is nothing to resist it because the life of the soul is away which is the spirit of God And is not this an excellent thing then for a man to have the spirit of God dwelling in him that when good is proposed to him the spirit may as it were switch him It is a homely expression but I have found it by experience As a jade with a good switch is set on to the journey or to his businesse so when the soul of a man hath somewhat within to switch him to cause him to close with good things to lay hold on them to attempt them at least Whereas when the spirit is away there is no stirring the soul is as flat and as dead as water in a stinking ditch This is the excellency of the spirit Therefore you that have it prize it There are some that if they had it again as once they had they would prize it and praise God for it and would now give a world for it Therefore you that have these stirrings of the spirit in you to make you close with good and to resist evil in some measure bless God and praise his name for it That is the thing I drive at that you may see the use and worth and excellency of the Spirit of God in your souls When the Spirit of God is away from the soul all the seals of Gods Love and the signs of his Favor they are cut off at one dash as it were I mean thus when the Spirit of God dwels in the soul you could read the love of God in every Ordinance you could see it in every Grace and in every Promise in the Word of God in every thing and you could see one while your election with joy and another while Gods everlasting love with joy and another while the death of Christ and another while your union with him another while your Redemption and Reconciliation and Gods Love sealed in all these Nay in every creature you could taste the Love of God in your cloathes and your meat and every thing But let the Spirit of God be gone and all these are gone Take all Promises and Mercies and Sacraments they seal not one spark of the Love of God but they are all dead speechless things that signifie and speak no comfort at the best and it may be horror that a man may read I had almost said his Reprobation in that which a few hours before he could have read his election in and those Scriptures all along that he could sweetly have seen the Will of God in and could say that which neither eye hath seen nor ear hath heard nor hath entred into the hart of man that I have seen he can shut his Bible and say and almost swear that he understands not one tittle in it That soul that when he had the Spirit could spring with joy unspeakable and full of glory when he came before the Lord to call upon him either in publick or in private and could pour his soul into his fathers bosom that could have prayed a whole year if he had had time and strength to continue he is not able now to speak one word to the Lord. And more then so he is not now deprived only of all light of all Knowledg of all assurance of all comfort of all strength either to do good or to resist evil but there is positive horror in the heart positive fear and terror and darkness a bondage to unbelief seizing upon him That as our Lord saith The Spirit is like winde that no man knows whence it comes or whither it goes So he feels a misery in his soul that he knows not whence it comes or where it will end As it was said of the Powder plot the Powder Treason that there should be a blow given that none should know whence it was so he sees a blow given to his soul and the life of it and all that is good and excellent in it and he knows not whence it is he can say that his soul is no other then a plain hell for there is no positive evil in hell but it is there and there is no privative evil no evil of deprivation of any thing that is good but he feels it there so that in all our Religion our Graces and Duties and Assurances and Evidences the Spirit of Iesus Christ is the life of all Therefore no wonder that David who was a Type of a Gospel Christian should say Create in me O Lord a new heart andrenew and restore thy holy Spirit as if he had said since thy holy Spirit went away there is an annihilation all that is in me is annihilated He doth not say mend and repair but create I see not so much as a stump of Grace a root or a habit or any thing but all is pulled up and thou must create in me a right spirit Therefore learn that the life of all your Comfort and Assurance and Profession and Graces and Duties and all is the Spirit of God It is but the turning of Gods hand to say Come back my holy Spirit from such a soul leave him but one three hours and then he will be according as I have told you therefore saith the Apostle we are not debtors to the flesh but to the Spirit If ever you finde comfort in an Ordinance you owe thanks to the Spirit if ever you have a little assurance of Gods love whom will ye thank for it Ye are no debtors to the flesh he doth not mean you are not debtors to sin there is no man but he knows that he owes nothing to sin but saith he not to the flesh that is principally to any thing that is not the Spirit to fleshly wisdom to natural parts to our best abilities and endeavours If ever you have gotten any thing by Sabbaths or Sermons or the company of the Saints it was not from your own wisdom or pains but you are debtors to the Spirit of God it is the Spirit that wrought it therefore prize the Spirit of God you that have it O if you could but borrow the eyes of poor souls that had it once and have it not O how happy creatures would you think you are notwithstanding all outward miseries because Jesus Christ by his holy Spirit dwels in your hearts but we know not the worth of it till we want it and then we can prize it and would give a world for it And then labor to please the blessed Spirit take heed of provoking and grieving of him the Spirit is a more dainty Spirit then you are aware of you may easily vex and grieve and fret it do not dally with sin Christians
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
chickens or partridges that run their heads in a bush that hide their heads from the Hawk the Hawk sees all their bodies onely in a conceit they hide themselves thus that is they hide their own eyes that they may not see the Hawk but they do not hide their bodies that the Hawk may not see them So men shut their eyes and have many conceits O the Lord deliver us from it this is the hope of wicked men drunkards and whoremongers and sottish creatures that come not up to take Christ The Lord after compares them to little children Compa ∣ rison 2 in bed The bed is shorter then that a man can stretch himself on it As little children when they hear thunder they run under the sheets and blankets and think they are very safe so we conceive that we shall be delivered But truly all the shifts thou hast shall be no more to keep thee when the Lord comes on thee for a drunkard or an unbeliever or a persecutor then the sheets and blankets can keep them from a thunderbolt if God send it I but these were but comparisons and the people were ready to mock the prophet for it Saith he Mock not least your bands be made strong for I have heard from the Lord a consumption determined upon the whole earth Give ear and hear my voice hearken to my speech Doth the plowman plow all day to sow c. This is the manner of the prophet Isaiah especially when he speaks of the miseries and judgements that shall come upon people he mingles comfort for the poor Saints This he refers to the Saints that were upright And to comfort them he takes a comparison from the Husbandman that plows the field For the creatures are Gods Characters God hath written his will in his word at large and he hath written a copy of it as it were in the creatures that by the one we might be enabled to understand the other For we understand not one line of this blessed book any further then we are taught Now God hath so cast things in this world not only for the use and good of man but he hath cast things by his creation and providence in such a way as that every thing might resemble heavenly things Therefore it is said God hath given discretion to the Husbandman to do this the Lord hath ordered the earth so to be plowed and managed and the corn so to be threshed that thereby we might have a shadow of spirituall things comparing it with the blessed word Doth the plow man plow all day God deals diversly with weak and strong Saints What is the meaning of that It is thus you poor Saints God plows you and harrows you and if the Lord follow you with one affliction after another that whosoever escapes you suffer if not without yet within and sometimes you have both you think God deals wonderfull strangely with you Sayth he look on the plowman if ever you see one plow you will say yonder man doth but plow and harrow the land and make it fit to sow Barly or Oats or Wheat he hath some end in it they are the common heaths that lie unplowed but where there is good ground they plow it and when he hath plowed it is his discretion to sow So it is that when the Lord continues his afflictions upon thee thou shouldest consider that God that is thy good father hath some gracious designe to sow Barly or Wheat or Rye to sow some grace more And what though he plow thee or me or another more then other men or women Some lands are plowed thrice some four times besides the sowing they are so tough and dogged So some natures must be ofter and deeper and longer plowed Therefore stare not so much upon the affliction but consider the gracious designe and purpose of God to sow thee and to do thee good Thou and I have barren hearts and there is little corn that is pleasing to him there therefore he meanes by the afflictions that he layes on thee by such a sicknesse by such a perverse husband by such an ungracious childe or losse of estate the Lord means to sow thy barren heart and then blessed be his name If the Lord do that thou mayest well suffer him to plow and harrow thee any way with any instrument as he pleaseth Then he takes another comparison from threshing The Fitches are not threshed with a threshing instrument neither is a cart-wheel turned about upon the Cummin c. That is the afflictions of the Saints are also like the threshing of corn as there is no land that bears corn without plowing no more can we enjoy it without threshing some more some lesse some one way some another Now saith he in the manner of afflictions you may observe two things from the threshing of men which was in another manner in those countries then with us It was trod out with the Oxe and they did bring a wheel and horsmen to ride upon their corne in those dry countries And some was beaten with a staff and small corne they did whip out with a rod. So saith he there are two things to be observed in the manner of Gods dealing you that are weak people weak Christians the Lord sees that you are little Fitches Fitches is a little graine and Cummin especially Christ calls them little things yet little and weak Christians are like Cummin and Fitches God will not bring a Cart wheele over them that shall bruise them to pieces and make them worth nothing but he will beat them with a staffe and the Cummin with a rod that is where there is a little weak Saint the Lord will take a little wand a rod a small light affliction But bread corn is bruised because he will not ever be threshing it not break it with the wheel c. That is sometimes also God meanes to lay all the afflictions as it were at once upon his childe where he sees a strong Saint many times he brings his horsemen and his cartwheel as he did with Iob you know Iob had but a bout and so he goes over and some of his days before and his days after were comfortable God brings strong afflictions upon his children The reason is because God will not alway be threshing he will not alway afflict for then the spirit of man would fail before him If thy afflictions be light say I am a little Fitch or Cummin if they be heavy say they will be short for the Husbandman though he deal more coursly with his Corn then with his Fitches yet he takes it into his Barne and laies it up safe so though thy afflictions be sore thou maist from the practice of the Husbandman say they will be short therefore indeavor to learn a little from afflictions and how to carry and behave thy self like a Saint wait patiently upon God to know Gods design and meaning This also cometh forth from the
day THe Lord doth here reprove or rather shew his indignation against hypocrites Here is their description they say stand by thy self come not near to me for I am holier then thou yet they were a rebellious people as we see before the Lord spread out his hands to them all the day long and they walked in their own wayes after their own thoughts The thing I drive at is to acquaint you with this How hatefull how abominable hypocrisie is to God Their hypocrisie was that they thought and they said Hypocrisie a hatefull thing to God to their brethren stand off I am holier then thou come not near me c. yet it was but outward holinesse and the Lord saith they are a smoake in my nostrills all the day long The meaning is not as if God had nostrills though usually where you read of the anger and wrath of God in the Hebrew It is said Gods nose God tooke this to his nose when he was angry But when he saith they are a smoake in my nostrills God takes the comparison from man as it is oft in the proverbs a sloathfull messenger is as vinegar to the teeth and smoak to the eyes that is very sore So God saith hypocrites are as a smoak in his nostrills all the day long that is as smoak in a Kiln or in a smoaky house where there is a bad chimney it is a wondrous troublesome thing especially if a man be driven to continue all the day a man is not able to bear it the smoak will fill his eyes and his nose God takes the expression from men to shew his indignation and displeasure a gainst hypocrisy My aime is to make you sensible how displeasing to God hypocrisy is Hypocrisy take it in the grossest sense though there be a hundred degrees of it is when men seeme and are not when you say and do not as some expresse it when you pretend to be that you are not or pretend to be more then you are for so it is here I am more holy then thou That is hypocrisy when you seem what you are not or in degree more then you are yet that lesse degree is as a smoak in Gods nostrills all the day long It is abominable to God and that is the reason that Christ eight times in the same Chapter Mat. 23. pronounceth Wo to you hypocrites Wo to you hypocrites It may be the Lord may call an hypocrite for an hypocrite is but a sinner though he be the worst of sinners but hypocrisy is abominable to God The reason is because such a man Idolizeth every Proved from two reasons 1. The hypocrite honours the creature above God creature and makes every creature more then God he honours every creature more then God For he knows that God deales with his heart he knowes that God deals with his heart he knows that God sees his heart and men and children and every thing sees his outward life now he is more carefull to please men and creatures and to carry himself religiously and devoutly as a Saint before men then he cares how to carry his heart before the Lord which is as if he should say I do more honour and respect every creature that seeth my outside then the Lord God that views and sees my heart What can more provoke God when God is put below every creature and every creature is advanced above him That is one reason Another reason is this because that the name of God is more dishonoured and his Gospell and his Kingdome 2. Hypocrisy contributes most to Gods dishonour more scandalised by them then by all the world besides The Saints sometimes dishonour God by weaknesse but carnall men usually know in their consciences that it is but weaknesse in such a Saint looking on the course of his life and the frame of his spirit but hypocrites the world seeing sometimes their base doings are ready to curse them Here are the men that go to such Lectures and such Sermons and thus they cozen and over-reach and all their Religion is of the same stamp they are all hypocrites as this sanctified brother cheaters they are This doth transfigere nomen Jehovah as blasphemy signifies it makes men pierce through the name of God and of Christ God hath so fastned it on my heart how abominable it is that it cannot out of my thoughts therefore God may have an end in it to reach some of you at this time though you have been as a smoak in his nostrills though you have kept God no a kilne as it were by your villany by seeming what you are not or to be far more then you are For take it from God for it is from him in a speciall manner let us all look to our selves let us all consider our wayes and let all take heed that we seem and pretend not to be any thing in Religion more then we are in our closets That we may be able to say O Lord if I were at thy tribunall this is true I desire thy glory I seek thine honour and the welfare and advancement of thy people and so whether I be well or ill or live or die I care not Look to it and wo wo wo to those among us whosoever they are let them be Magistrates or Ministers I leave them to the Lord to point them out that drive on Iesuiticall designs under the pretence of Religion They talk of Reformation and I know not what and a blind man almost may see their covetousnesse and self-seeking and oppression of the Saints Whosoever thou art thou hast the worst end of the staff be sure The hearts of the Saints are touched with the same loadstone as the heart of God they judge as he judgeth and as God saith such people are a smoak in his nostrills so they are in the eyes of the Saints they curse such They pity wicked men when blindly they go against the Saints but when thou puttest the best side outward and pretendest to be holy and thou knowest thou couldst eat all the Saints of God and throw down the Worship of Christ O there are many prayers against thee and there is a harmony between the hearts of the Saints and the heart of God God saith ye are a smoak in his nostrills and so say the Saints It grieves me more at the Jesuiticall designes of some then all the proceedings of the Cavaliers Wo be unto them there is nothing done in secret but it shall be open there is nothing spoken in the ear but it shall be published on the house top all their villany shall come out And so in trading a man must take heed of many professors I hope the generation of the Saints shall not suffer by it in buying and selling a man were better deal with carnall men then with some professors in the City that I have knowen I speak this to thy comfort that art such a one though thou be the very heir
many I will give you but one more that is in the book of Ruth you shall have there a good woman that had two daughters in law her sons were both dead and so she was going to return to her country she was in a strange country with them and she takes her leave of her two daughters Chap. 2. 8. Naomi said to her two daughters in law Go return each to her mothers house the Lord deal kindly with you as ye have dealt with the dead and with me that is they had been kind to her sons and to her for they lived in a strange country now Farwell The Lord grant that you may finde rest each of you in the house of her husband Then she kissed them c. And they said surely we will return with thee to thy people we will go along we will not leave thee No daughters saith she do not so for I cannot bear other children for you to marry as the law was then If I should lie to night with an husband and have children you would not stay so long therefore I pray abide and go not And it is said Orpah kissed her mother in law and lift up her voice and wept and left her but Ruth clave unto her Orpah was perswaded and wept and took her leave but Ruth clave to her and said Intreat me not to leave thee or to return from following after thee for whether thou goest I will go and where thou lodgest I will lodge thy people shall be my people and thy God my God Where thou dyest will I die and there will I be buried the Lord do so to me and more also if ought but death part thee and me So I say you see here that when there was a competition a kind of parting then Ruth abiding with Naomi that is called cleaving It is a glorious thing that when the seeming servants The honour of cleaving to Christ of Iesus Christ shall depart from him when there is a division among professors then to be able to cleave to Iesus Christ That you may understand it conceive that in the wayes of Iesus Christ many times there are such times that abundance of hypocrites as well as Saints abide with him they are sometimes still like the waters of Shilo there is no persecution or trouble in them it may be there is a great deal of honour and wealth and riches with them and many times a great party of the world sticks to him but there is a little tripp and step in the ways of godlines when there is a parting when hypocrites like Orpah shall weep and repent and so shall go with Christ no longer if they do one shall loose his friends another his trade another his wife and shall lift up their voices and weep and take their leaves then is the beautie of Christianity and the blessednesse of a Christian to be able to cleave to the Lord in such a time as this is This was the exhortation of the good man Barnabas that he gave to the people as you shall read Acts 11. 22 23. When he was come and had seen the grace of God he was glad and exhorted them all that with purpose of heart they should cleave to the Lord. I have oft marvailed with my self why Barnabas that is said to be a good man and full of the Holy Ghost coming as a stranger to a congregation of good people where he saw the grace of God among them why he should choose this and no more but onely pitch upon this exhortation that seeing they were godly and had received the grace of God he should say I have no more to say but this one word understand it well that is that with full purpose of heart you cleave to the Lord. Indeed the reason was as I conceive if you compare it with Chap. 14. 22. Barnabas was a man to whom God had discovered much of the doctrine of Tribulation and persecution that belonged to the Gospell For take notice of it by the bye I look on the people of God liâ—e the servants of God that did go to build the Temple some were appointed to hew stone some to digge them up and some to carry them home some to build them up some to cast accounts and to keep reckoning So the Lord Iesus in his Kingdom no man knows the reason why he cuts out distinct parcells of work to his people and thereupon supplies them with his spirit and reveales truthes to his people some to manage such a thing no man knows the reason God fastens the doctrine of justification upon some that they cannot rest night nor day and one that may be unwilling to die for another point but not for that Another about Church-government Another upon sanctification none knowes why but God fits them for their work by his Spirit according to his blessed will Therefore we should not censure or sleight godly men because our master doth not imploy them about such a work as he doth us It may be my thoughts are upon sanctification anothers upon justification So God cuts out the work as it pleaseth him Now this Barnabas it seemes did not speak much as we read of but he had a mighty apprehension of persecutions and tribulations that the Saints should suffer in this world Therefore in Acts 14. 22. he and Paul confirm the souls of the Disciples exhorting them to continue in the faith and that we must through much tribulation enter into the Kingdom of God In every Sermon as we may say Barnabas had something to strengthen the souls of the people to go thorow tribulation and affliction It may be another Apostle had his Spirit upon another work It may be in reference to this he gave them this exhortation desiring them with full purpose of heart to cleave to the Lord As if he had said Now you are in prosperity for so they were and are all ready to hear the Gospell and receive it O saith he but there is a time a coming to trie you and you must not think to run to heaven between two feather-beds but as all the Saints before had their share so every one that will live in Christ Iesus must suffer persecution As there is a Statute in heaven for all men once to die so if you be Saints you must live in tribulation and persecution and that is the way as Christ was made perfect by sufferings so you must come to salvation Therefore when those things come I have not much to say to you but O then remember to cleave to the Lord for then you shall see hypocrites in droves going away from Iesus Christ and leaving him one stumbling at this another at that one is offended at the Crosse that it takes away his credit another for his profit another his liberty another his trading but brethren I beseech you with full purpose of heart to cleave to the Lord. See how a company in Iohn 6. with one word
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
makes them all flee and as they were fleeing God put every mans sword against his fellow and so they slew one another Do unto them as unto the Midianites that is dash their heads together make their policies to crosse one another As we have seen in our dayes all the conspiracies of the wicked turn to the ruine of themselves Thus the Bishops came to ruine God put them one against another that their own plots and policies did overthrow them Do unto them as to Sisera You shall read of him in Iudge 4. he had nine hundred Chariots of Iron going into the field and all his men were defeated and he fleeing for his life Iaell a poore woman as he was asleep in the tent comes and nailes him in the Temples and kills him Do unto them as unto Sisera that is be they never so strong and have Chariots of Iron thou canst make small meanes a naile in the hand of a silly woman to be their overthrow Do to them as to Iabin at the brook Kison which perished at Endor they became as dung for the earth That is they were so contemptible that they were left as a heap of dung upon the earth and no man to bury them and this I say is not a meer prayer but a prophesie what the end of such people will be Make their nobles like Oreb and like Zeeb Those were princes of the Midianites you shall read in Iudge 7. how they were destroyed Yea all their Princes like Zebah and Zalmunna Those were two great Princes that were slaine by Gedeon Iudg. 8. Who said Let us take to our selves the houses of God in possession Those wicked men that would destroy the people of God and rule in the house of God that would take the houses of God in possession and ruine them do to them as to Zebah and Zalmunna Then he comes and speaks more plainly and desires God to punish them or to let his judgements fall upon them and those judgements he sets out by three comparisons The first is O my God saith the prophet make them like a wheele And make them as the stubble before the wind And make them as the fire that burneth the wood and as the flame that setteth the mountains on fire c. O my God make them as a wheele Some conceive the meaning is make them as a wheele going down a hill that give it but half a turne and every motion will add strength to its course the longer it runs down the stronger so the meaning is let their own devises and designes tumble them further and further into misery let every thing they do help to throw them down to hell That is true but I rather follow the Hebrew word that signifies any round uncertaine or light thing for all do not read it as a wheel So the meaning is O my God let them never solidly be able to conclude any thing but let them be so unstable that they may do and undo and say and unsay let them not prosper in any thing but do thou dash all that they do let it be as a feather or a light thing tossed up and down in the aire That is a thing that we see God many times doth he makes the counsells of the wicked though they have wise heads learned heads and number enough yet all produce but a feather and all vapours into aire Let them be as stubble before the wind That makes me think that the word wheele is so to be understood because of this expression he doth not say Make them as stubble before the fire though that be true and it is so exprest in another place but as stubble before the wind And all do not read it stubble but conceive it many be meant chaffe or any light thing I adhere to these rather and so it comes to the same thing Make them and all their designes and plots as chaffe before the wind let them not go on in a steady resolution and course but dash and confound all their projects and policies and bring them to nothing As the fire that burneth the wood and as the flame that setteth the mountains on fire That is terrible the meaning of it is as we see in the verse following Lord let thy tempest and storm make them afraid Let thy judgement come on them and devour them as the fire doth Goss or Heath or Fearne or furrs that one would think a whole mountaine were burning when a childe doth but set fire on Fures so let those terrible judgements and storms of thine take them And whereto Two ends of Gods judgements on the wicked 1. To work shame in them There are two ends for it First that it may fill their faces with shame that they may seek thy name There are no people so wickedly and mischievously bent against the Saints that they should desire God to ruine and destroy them onely they may desire God to send his tempest and storme on them that they may learn to be afraid and seek the name of the Lord. As Steven when Saul and the rest stoned him saith he Lord lay it not to their charge There is nothing more improper and unbecoming a Saint then revenge and a Saint that hath been a slave and is redeemed and kept from the pit by the Lord Iesus Christ he should not desire the destruction of any creature he hath had mercy by the Gospell therefore he should have mercy on every creature And truly a man that knows his own desert and his nature and his wayes and knows how much grace and mercy God shewes to his soul he should not desire the worst man to go to hell and perish Therefore take heed least there be any spirit of revenge in any of Gods people though the wicked conspire never so much but desire that the Lord would make all stubble that they do as a wheele as a vain thing or if he will send a little fire of affliction upon them to make them seek his face this is the utmost we should desire And if God will not do this that they may be bettered yet That men may know that thou whose name alone is Iehovah art the most high over all the earth 2 To work amendment in others Some understand it as though it were meant of the same people for the word Men is not in the originall that they may know that thou whose name is Iehovah But that is not allowed and approved by the generality but they take it in generall and the originall will bear it better that the name of Iehovah may be known though they will not know it it may be God may blast their counsells and they will be at it again and God may cast fire among them and they will not be ashamed yet others will they will take notice how wicked people conspired against the people of God at such a time and in such a place and God made it as a bubble
come to know this Here is the word and then the Spirit of faith this is the language this is the way of the Gospell the way of faith But you will say What is that word of Faith that this is grounded on The Apostle chooseth one Scripture verse 11. in stead of all other as there are abundance of Scriptures setting forth the Gospell way but he takes this as one of the chief among the rest whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed He takes it out of Isaiah 28. whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed He takes I say that as one of the chief Scriptures of Gospell that is to be the foundation of the way of faith and though you may apply it for the soul and principally so yet you may for every thing else that this is a generall and sure rule he that believeth on God shall not be ashamed So the Lord hath removed our reproach We heard with our ears jeering of God and Preachers and Preaching but now blessed le God we need not blush we may own our prayers and stand to our preaching and glory in the promises of God he that believeth shall not be ashamed Therefore hereafter though God doth delay a long while as this was about two years and a monety yet notwithstanding learn to believe in God still wait upon God patiently and either the whole Gospell will not hold or else this will for this is the pillar of it he that believeth shall not be ashamed The patient abiding of the meeke shall not be ashamed If God see a man meekly and patiently wait for him his waiting shall not be in vain and though it be long in our eyes yet a thousand yeers with God are as one day and one day as a thousand yeers And the delay of a thousand yeers is as it were but a day yet he brings about all his promises of mercies sweetly for his glory and the good of his people Therefore whatsoever we would have for his glory and the good of his people let us follow God and rest on his word Remember that Gospell pillar I say not promise but pillar he that believeth shall not be ashamed That is one thing Another is this that we should but God knows when we will learn it for people are further and further from learning it every day me thinks learn hence a little in due order and manner to honour the Saints and people of God A man would think so but blinde men cannot see We know that there is an Army the generality I hope I may say so of them being godly people an Army I think truly I may say without disparagement to any other fearing God and seeking his honour as much as any Army under the cope of heaven these five hundred yeers Blessed be God that put it in your hearts to reform them if there be any evill among them it is one of the most glorious works that ever you did Now it is no disparagement to God that under God and in God we honour his people Therefore wo to them that call light darknesse of which to this day the streets are full all the week long notwithstanding the humility the love and unity the self-deniall and all the graces that are to be seen as cleare as the sun in the firmament in this Army yet you shall have people and many that would be called professors to reproach them and raile and say A scandalous aspersion upon the Army that when they had got the power they intended to rule both King and Parliament The admirable graces observed in the Army by the Author long since they fight for their own ends they seek themselves they are no friends to the Parliament they meane to get a little power and then to rule King and Parliament too O blasphemous speeches Beloved for my part I have not been there oft but I saw more grace in that small Army poor wretches then in all the Kingdom besides First I see more love there their love is true love and it is love to one another as they are Saints as they are honest men and not as such a one holds a faction this way or that way If one man be wounded they will all venture their lives to fetch him off and if one be sick every one contributes to his wants there is abundance of sweet love There is unity here is biting such a one is a Presbyterian another is an Independent another is an Anabaptist there is no such biting there They look not in mens mouthes as men do in horses mouthes and say is he a Presbyterian or an Independent but is he an honest man a godly man if he be he is a companion for any godly man We are the most miserable men in the world this poor City if a man had as much grace as Paul had if some Independent see him and say he is inclining to Presbytery or if a Presbyterian see him and say he is inclining to Independencie then let him go and cut his throat The Lord pity you that so Christ Iesus in the souls of people may be the object of your love Is there grace and Christ there be there what there will if there be not that I have nothing to do Now if one that is carnall joyn with me or another or a third man in faction we take him The Lord pity us it is not so in the Army It would do you good to go among them twenty four hours to see the unity that is among them I say learn to honour the Saints Then there is a spirituality there there is a thing that may be called spirituality in the Army There is not onely a profession and duties c. as we have here but a kind of flower of godlinesse some sparklings of their graces there is not onely grace but grace flying As when I was in the Army I saw some glory shine in their graces that would dazle a mans eyes almost as the Sun an excellencie of grace the spirituality of grace We strive about low carnall things about this and that but they about the mysteries of the Kingdom of God you may see it gloriously And then what self-deniall is there Who lives there by plundering and stealing as many have done and do And then when honour is got how doth every one study to cast honour on his brother and not on himself and studies silence not to have his name mentioned but that God may have glory O it is a glorious thing And then what fidelity If there were nothing in them of all those things in that flaming manner yet me thinks their fidelity as subjects should make them honourable How I will tell you how because that having no encouragment almost but railing and scoffing and contemning of them and raising reproaches on them c. and the liberty of their conscience threatned day by day and impaired very much every day by those that stay
Observations on MICAH 4. 1 2 3 c. But in the last dayes it shall come to passe that the mountaine of the house of the Lord shall be established in the top of the mountains and it shall be exalted above the hills and the people shall flow unto it And many Nations shall come and say Come and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord and to the house of the God of Iacob and he will teach us of his wayes and we will walk in his paths for the Law shall go forth of Zion and the word of the Lord from Ierusalem And he shall judge among many people and rebuke strong Nations afar off and they shall beat their swords into plow-shares and their speares into pruning-hooks Nation shall not lift up a sword against Nation neither shall they learn war any more But they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig-tree and none shall make them afraid for the mouth of the Lord of hosts hath spoken it For all people will walk every one in the name of his God and we will walk in the name of the Lord our God for ever and ever HEre are four or five things that the Lord The blessings of the later times promiseth in the latter times One is that the mountaine of the house of the Lord shall be established in the top of the mountains and shall be exalted That is the Church and people of God and the things of God shall be exalted in this world above all other things You know now that the power of Christ is beneath all other powers and the Kingdom of Christ is beneath all other Kingdomes and the people of Christ are beneath all other people and the Ordinances of Christ are beneath all other ordinances but in the latter times the Mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established in the top of the mountains The time shall come when God shall raise his Church and people and his laws and ordinances and every thing of his above the world that the Saints shall be more glorious and more respected then all the people in the world besides And therefore you that are Saints be not troubled to see Christ so low in the world it grieves them to see how every base thing gets over Christ to see how Christ and his things are trampled on in the world Christ is as a Worm thou worm Jacob every childe may put his foot upon the head of a Worm so are all the things of God and have been hitherto but in times to come the Lord shall raise his Mountain above all other mountains Another thing promised is that in the last times Many Nations shall come and say Come let us go up to the House of the Lord and to the Mountain of the God of Jacob c. that is when Christ and his Laws and Ordinances shall be exalted there will be a greater Harvest among the people then ever there was before First In respect of the extent of it Many Nations shall come and say Whereas now most of the Nations of the world are ignorant of or enemies to the things of Jesus Christ there are few Nations that hear of the Name of Christ but then many Nations shall come many Nations that lye in Paganism and Heathenism and darkness God will finde a way to spread the savor of the Gospel to them Secondly then there shall be a great deal of willingness to come to Christ in his holy Ordinances they shall say Come let us go up to the mountain of the House of the Lord and they shal flow to it Now you know what a deal of preaching there is to bring home one soul to God a man may preach and preach and searce ever a one brought home to God the Lord pours but a little of his Spirit with preaching we are to bless his Name for any but the time shall come that as soon as the people hear they shall obey The people shall flow unto The word is taken from the Tide there are two things meant by it First That then abundance of people shall come in to the Lord for the Tide comes in with waves and abundance of water it comes not with a little water but with multitudes Then it comes with strength and power that goes through all opposition We see now it is not so the Lord gives but little of his Spirit and therefore there are but few that come in to God and of those few many of them every little thing turns them off one is afraid of persecution another of the loss of his estate another of the loss of friends another of the loss of his grace but then they shall flow Another thing in this Promise of this glorious Harvest is this as they shall flow so also they shall be inabled their hearts shall be inlarged to learn abundance of the Will of God and moulded to a willingness to obey it This is not accomplished yet They shall then say Come let us go to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us his ways and we will walk in his paths Now you know there is but little teaching Indeed God teacheth some few wondrously more aboundantly then we can teach but yet there be many though we speak much and though they live under the Ordinances yet they learn little and then that little that they do learn there is very little power that goes along to frame their hearts to do it but then they shall say We will walk in his ways There will be a power that when the Saints hear the word from God they shall not be alway wishing and woulding and say I would I could do so but there shall be a power with the word whereby they shall be enabled to do it Another thing promised in the last times is that They shall be at their swords into plow-shares and their speares into pruning hooks c. The Lord will end these wars that are among the Nations that make the lives of people and of the Saints uncomfortable And especially as I take it with submission to the people of God that are wise that the wars here principally meant are wars for Religion as appears by the verses following they shal be at their swords into plow-shares and their spears into pruning hooks They shall then give over wars and live peaceably together whereas you know now most of the wars in the world are about Religion The Turk would come and subdue Christendom to set up the worship of his Mahomet the Pope would destroy him to set up his Religion and so all over the world there is a disposition that with fire and fagot and sword and spear we would bring men to worship God every man according to his own fancie But saith he then there shall be no such wars every man shall sit under his own vine and under his own fig-tree and none shall make them afraid The mouth
old but the way to Heaven is so narrow that in the profession of Religion abundance of them do fall away And few men fall away at the first but when the tryall comes when the Sun ariseth as our Lord saith So a learned expositer upon it saith that it may be thirty or fourty or fifty or sixty yeers among professors there may be many hypocrites and there are more that have but a common work of the spirit of God thereupon our Lord speaking onely to professors such as they were Matt. 13. where he saith three of the four were rotten and come to nothing and the fourth only hold out Some mens sins are open before saith Paul and some follow after We see it by some men setting out in Religion they never come to any thing but some mens sins follow after Some men go far and walk gloriously and afterward are discovered And truly it is a rule among the best of our ministers that seldome or never hypocrites go out of this world undiscovered And hence it comes to passe by the falls of hypocrites and those that have not a saving work of grace that great ones fall away and little low ones outstrip them Secondly it comes to passe that the first are last and the last first because the Lord for reasons best known to himself for the most part so casts it that even among true professors true Saints the most part of them when they grow ancient in Religion especially they take a napp before they go hence They go as travellers in the way that go out betime in the morning but take a baite of two or three hours in the way and so slow travellers get before them There is not one in ten ordinarily but hath a shrewd napp when he is ancient in Religion before he go hence Thereupon we see the ten Virgins Matt. 25. The wise Virgins slept as well as the foolish they all slept but the wise Virgins awaked in time and got up again and the foolish slept it out And while they are napping and sleeping the first becomes last and the last first For we may not think that all such ancient professors that they have no grace We see now are there not some Magistrates and many Ministers old non-conformists that are now generally napping and sleeping that you would think there were nothing of God in them we may not think that they belong not to the Lord and that they have no grace This is the time when many simple souls get into Christ and the knowledg of Christ and have further enjoyments of spirit and communion of spirit with him then those grave Ministers and Common-wealths men that before held out Religion more then others yet we are not to think that they have no grace Therefore of this briefly there are these four or five practicall lessons that we should learn The first is that all you that are ancient Christians 1. Vse to avoid security ancient professors if ye stand to take heed least ye fall How should this me thinks make an ancient Saint watch how should he avoid security when it is ordinary for old Christians to take a napp and so not to be higher in Heaven they lose much of their glory in Heaven nay they lose their honour here ye some men think them to be hypocrites Therefore stand on your guard say not we have been professors twenty or thirty or fourty yeers as ordinary professors bragg of their standing in Religion No but remember this lesson there are many first that shall be last therefore walk watchfully and circumspectly Think with your selves and O that the Lord would open the eyes of ancient Christians in this City to see poor souls of a yeer or half a yeers standing start up that have more of Christ in them and more clear knowledge of the Gospell and love him more and his Saints and do more for him then they do O look about thee and consider with thy self that though thou be ancient and before that man or woman in Christ yet thou mayst come a great while after him to heaven for all that Therefore saith Paul I press hard to that which is before It is a comparrison from men that run in a race As the heathen Poet saith when a man runs in a race he never looks on the horses that are behind him but if there be one before him he looks to that Beloved look that if thou be before others take heed that thou come not to the goale after them Secondly let ancient professors ancient Christians 2. Not to contemn others learn not to despise and contemn weak Saints young beginners nay not sinners themselves I have observed it to the grief of my soul with the bleeding of my heart a great deal of contempt and disdaine in the brows of some ancient Christians against some weak Saints take heed of it for though thou be first and great now thou art honoured now as an excellent Prayer in London as one excellent in a day of humiliation who knows whether thou that art first mayst not be last Therefore contemn not weak Saints No nor sinners there is many a man that may be in the Ale-house a drinking and swearing and whoring and his quean with him that may be in heaven before thee therefore be tender to sinners especially if it be a Saint that hath any thing of God in him consider he that is first may be last and the last may be first Thirdly let weak Saints and young beginners learn 3. Weak ones not to bear themselves unreverently hence also as on the one side that I may put in that caveat not to behave themselves unreverently toward the ancient I would not have old Saints to crow over the young muchlesse the young over the ancient Saith Paul rebuke not an elder but rather exhort him If we in preaching must not speak so sharply to ancient Christians whether elders in Office or rather in Religion as I believe it is we must not rebuke him but speak with reverence so much more young Christians must speak reverently of ancient Christians and not say there goes such an old professor and such a one saith the first shall be last and so despise him No but as God hath put the law of nature that the young shall observe the elder and the junior shall respect the senior so in grace and Religion people must observe their duty Therefore young women must learn of the old and old women should be teachers of good things to young women not given to wine c. beware of petulant wanton carriage towards old professors So on the other side be not discouraged by seeing the Neither to be discouraged graces in ancient strong Christians It is an ordinary thing for weak Saints to be more discouraged at the graces of strong Saints then at any thing else As a weak eye that looks on the Sun can see just nothing so many a
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
flesh of his flesh that I may walk all the day thus cloathed with these reflexions then when we come to sin when temptation is offered it may be the devil will say such a one did it that is wiser then thou and such a one that is a fellow of the same calling then this positive actual reflexion upon the soul that thou art in Christ this would make thee say O but how shall I do it Jesus Christ died for me Jesus Christ hath washed me in his blood I am one with him What if the children of darkness do so is it fit for a childe of light what if sinners do so is it fit for a man that God hath called out of sin and out of the world is it fit for him to do so We seldome carry those reflexions about us when The Saints should reflect upon their high condition we go abroad among the snares of the world therefore we fall into sin for the older we are in grace the more full of snares the world is I could shew that you can name no place in the new Testament where our priviledges and relations are mentioned but as the holy Ghost mentions them to raise up the soul for comfort so expresly to stir us up to holiness 1 John 3. 1. Behold what manner of love God hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the sons of God! I am perswaded that the Primitive Saints in the new Testament did generally look upon themselves distinct as a Common wealth and a people redeemed out of the world and in the light of that they did so walk they did alway speak so of themselves We are the first fruits of the spirit we are the sons of God we are redeemed and bought with a price We are the sons of God but it doth not appear what we shall be but when he shall come we shall be like him O this gives comfort but what then what follows He that hath this hope purifieth himself as he is pure This hope is somewhat like that reflexion I am speaking of when there is an actual hope in the soul of being with the Lord and an actuall positive perswasion that I am the Lords then a man will purify himself as God is pure I might mention a hundred places in the new Testament 2 Cor. 6. Come out from among them seperate your selves and touch no unclean thing and I will receive you and I will be your father and you shall be my sons and daughters saith the Lord Almighty This is very comfortable that we shall be his sons and daughters and that he will be our Father What then In the beginning of the next Chapter Having therefore these promises let us cleanse our selves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit perfecting holiness in the fear of God If we be the sons and daughters of God and he be our Father therefore we should be holy in soul and body and spirit I remember a little Story of a great Monarch though I do not much trouble you with them but it doth a little illustrate what we speak of walking with his son a Prince the great Emperor seeing little poor children to play and tumble in the dirt he said to his son Why dost not thou go and play with them Saith he I would if I did see any Kings and Princes children play with them he reflected upon himself that he was a Prince a Kings son and it was not fit for them to tumble in the dirt So you may say when you see Drunkards and Whoremongers and Extortioners if the devil tempt you in your hearts and say Why dost not thou do so why dost not thou get money as yonder man doth or labor to be great in the world O say do the sons of God use to do so to cozen and cheat and be drunk and lie If the Saints did so then it were another thing but shall I that am a Prince that am a son of God shall I be a Scullion and wallow in the dirt Therefore I say it is enough to an honest heart to propose a pitch that is above him that he never attained and what will he do he will seek and not give over till God have wrought it God wrought it in most of the Saints of old therefore let us labor with the Lord that we may have such considerations alway about us O how gloriously should we walk if we had still actuall considerations I am a son I am a daughter of God! How humbly should we walk towards our brethren how weaned from this world what Pilgrims would we be here upon earth doubtless we run and lanch into the world by forgetting of our relations and stations so that as in Gen. 6. The sons of God married the daughters of men We walk as the sons of men and miscarry as the sons and daughters of mem If we did alway walk and look upon our selves as the sons and daughters of God we should in some poor measure express something of the sons and daughters of God in every word and carriage and action towards God and men c. Expositions and Observations on PHILIPPIANS 2. 1 2 3. If there be therefore any consolation in Christ if any comfort of love if any fellowship of the Spirit if any bowels and mercies Fulfil ye my joy that ye be like minded having the same love being of one accord of one minde Let nothing be done through strife or vaine glory but in lowliness of minde let each esteem other better then themselves THe Lesson that the Lord gave you and me lately to consider of and to do was rightly to love the Saints to love Saints ought to love though they be not beloved our brethren and the way you remember was that we should not make that the ground of our love to our brethren because they love us but because we are beloved of God we should love though we be not beloved of men He that will not love his brethren till he be loved of them nor no further nor no longer then he is beloved he shall never love them much nor love them rightly at all because all goes upon a wrong ground and by a false rule And therefore we should set upon the practice of that duty in these times of division that whatsoever man I look on as a Saint or see the Image of God in him I should indeavor to bring my heart to love him If he love not me let him look to that I shall not answer for that that shall be laid on his score but if I love not my brother that shall be laid on my score and as my account so my comfort I mean true spiritual comfort both here and hereafter it is not in this that I am much beloved but that I love much I spake to you of that more at large then and I hope you will indeavor to bring your souls to be doers of this blessed truth as
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
works and no otherwise for I know this no trouble nothing can befall a Saint that is rightly principled according to the Gospel but it is exceeding amiable If there be sorrow for sin or any thing that you account bitter in it self if it fall on such a soul that is indued with such a principle that is as sweet as any thing else I may say though it be Nonsence to carnal ears his sorrow is as sweet as his joy his sorrow for sin is as sweet as his joy for mercies if he be one that is rightly transplanted from Mount Sinai to Mount Sion Therefore see how the Apostle lays it down look on it and you shall see nothing but what is truly amiable But ye are come to Mount Sion Now Mount Sion was a beautiful place saith the holy Ghost the beautifullest place in all Ierusalem where the Kings house was Davids house covered with gold Therefore beautiful things in Scripture are laid down by the name of Sion and usually it is called the Virgin Sion for fairness and beauty Ye are come to Mount Sion And to the City of the living God What is that The heavenly Ierusalem Not to the old Ierusalem that was subject to be taken and to be burned and subject to pestilence and famine and sword but to the heavenly Ierusalem the Ierusalem that comes down from heaven And to an innumerable company of Angels You are come now to the place where there are Myriads of Angels In the state of the Saints in the new Testament there are innumerable companies of Angels that God hath ordered to waite on them to protect and preserve and to save them In the old Testament we read of one Angel here and another there one Angel was sent to Sennacheribs Camp to destroy it but here is an innumerable company of Angels this is the state of the Church in the new Testament To the general assembly and Church of the first born I cannot go over all the particulars but if you read All things amiable to a man rightly built upon Christ them over you shall see that there is no object but what is throughly amiable and that is the onely thing I would commend to you Let him be a man that is rightly laid upon Jesus Christ and hath the right knowledg of him according to the Gospel by his holy Spirit I do not say that there is a little but there is nothing that he can conceive or imagine but it is sweet and amiable and pleasant to him as For instance look which way you will if he behold God there he seeth infinite sweetness how he is his Father reconciled to him and ful of eternal bowels of affection towards him before the world was one that loves him infinitely and takes care of him perpetually If he look on Jesus Christ he sees that he is his husband he is one with him as Christ is one with the Father If he look upon the Ordinances he sees them as blessed pipes that have many sweet promises to convey more of the love of God and of his Spirit to his soul If he look upon the creatures he sees the glory of God upon them in creating them and the goodness of God in providing them for him and he tasts the love of God in them If he look on afflictions he sees them as sweet wise and seasonable corrections from his heavenly Father to bring him nearer to him If he look on sin as sin is the transgression of the Moral Law he sees all forgiven by the righteousness that is in Christ and all nailed to his Cross and he knows that sin in him shall work for the best that it may make him prize the grace of God more and come nearer to God If he look on persecution and the plotting of wicked people against the Church a Saint that is rightly set in the new Testament he sees nothing but what is beautiful and amiable Not but that there are objects that in themselves are not amiable as sin is not amiable in it self properly considered neither is affliction but he hath such a glass the Lord casts such a light in him through which he sees every thing the light of the Gospel through the holy Spirit that there is nothing but joy and comfort That is the reason that the Apostle commands which is a strange command Rejoyce saith he in the midst of afflictions rejoyce when ye fall into divers temptations And rejoyce and again rejoyce Phil. 4. And presently after Let your patience and moderation be known unto all men As if he had said Ye are in great afflictions yet rejoyce evermore If these Philippians had been as we are and had had those principles of Mount Sinai in them they would never have rejoyced in those great afflictions but having clearly the love of God in them and justification rightly placed on Christ and the principles of the Gospel rightly planted in them there was no affliction or temptation whatsoever but they could rejoyce in it Rejoyce evermore I do not know whether you yet fully understand it the Lord teach you that you may know what is the hope of you calling what a glorious condition God hath called you to I will conclude with three or four words of Exhortation to you from this Lesson that every object that a Saint that is in the new Ierusalem can behold is altogether amiable The uses are here mentioned in the Chapter before Then in the first place learn not to faint under afflictions 1. Use Not to faint in afflictions for that is the reason the Apostle brings this in do not so much strive or struggle how to get out of afflictions as to get more Gospel light to see afflictions for that is all one nay better then the other Therefore if the Lord do but give you a little Eye-salve that is his Spirit to look on them you shall see no gall nor taste nor see any misery or evil in them at all That is the Use that is here spoken of Therefore what ever thy afflictions be labor to understand rightly their nature and thy station in the new Testament and no doubt but thou shalt bear them through Another Use that the Apostle teacheth us is this 2. Not to undervalue the glorious condition of Saintship and me thinks in my apprehension it is a very considerable word Beware least there be any fornicator or prophane person among you as Esau that for one morsel of meat sold his Birthright for saith he we are not come to the Mount that might be touched I apprehend the meaning to be this that this being so the estate of a Saint being so glorious then beware you that are Professors least any of you be so prophane as to sell your birth-right that is all your glorious priviledges and unconceiveable happiness in your condition for a mess of pottage that is that you do not relinquish basely these mercies to forsake your
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
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
mean take heed you that have thought well of God and his people and have spoken well of him that when you see God sleep a little while and seems not to owne them take heed that you help not the children of Lot go not with the Moabites and the Tabernacles of Edom and with wicked men to conspire against the godly if you do know that if there be a God in heaven and if there be truth in this book you are under Gods wrath to be gathered on heaps for the fire There appears no fire yet but be sure you shall feel it hereafter therefore take heed The Lord will come saith the prophet as a bear bereaved of her whelps If a man take away the whelps of a Bear when she is asleep and go away when the Bear awakens you know what case that man will be in when the Bear sees him and her whelps in his arms So God takes upon him to sleep and if he see his little ones oppressed and abused when he awakes he will be as a Bear robbed of her whelps So much concerning that Now the prophet having spoken to God and desire him to awake he begins to tell him how the case stood For loe thine enemies make a tumult and they that hate thee lift up their heads they have taken crafty counsell c. The complaint was this in generall that they began to make a tumult Why a tumlt The whole world is but like an Army a Brigade of men as it were under a Generall and God is the Lord of Hoasts that is the Lord of his Armies now when there is a tumult in an Army they complaine to the officers to the Generall especially and he must come and suppresse them Therefore saith he thou Lord of Hoasts that art Generall of the world lo there is a tumult in the world a mutinie what is it They that hate thee have lifted up their heads That is they are waxen proud and high And take crafty counsell together against thy people and consult against thy hidden ones You see here the property of wicked people when God doth not restraine them to consult and conspire against the godly for by the hidden ones are meant the godly So the Septuagint reads it thy Saints or holy ones They are called hidden ones or secret ones as some read it because they are precious as in Exodus God The Saints Gods hidden ones calls them his treasure my peculiar people my treasure And you know our treasure and riches we hide it and keep it secret And they are called hidden ones likewise because the Lord useth to hide his people in the time of trouble hide me in the hollow of thy hand saith David and hide me under the shadow of thy wings in another place They are called hidden ones I think principally because the world knowes them not because the Devill alway hath some vail upon the eyes of the wicked that they are not able to know the Saints as Saints 1 Ioh. 3. Now we are the sons of God and the world knowes us not It is the clearest note of a man truly carnall that hath nothing of God in him he will tell you that he knows not who are Gods children and Saints and who are not the Devill hath so many wayes and nick-names as to call them Lollards and Schismaticks and Puritans and now there are more nick-names then ever So God hath his Saints and people they are his treasure and peculiar ones but he hides them from the world for it is not in the apprehension of wicked men to persecute the Saints as Saints but they persecute them as Schismaticks or hereticks one way or other yet it may be they may be Gods hidden ones Therefore what you do against Gods hidden ones you do against him I beseech you take heed how you consult and conspire against people that make any profession of Religion though you think they be hereticall or Schismaticks and it may be they are so and it may be they are Gods hidden ones it may be because of my fleshliness I think him to be an heretick or a Schismatick and it may be he is a Saint and childe of God and one of his hidden ones In the next verse he layes down the conspiracie what it was that they craftily consulted of Ver. 4. Come and let us cut them off from being a Nation that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance The desires of the wicked are not to suppress one or two or a few of the Saints though indeed they light upon a few and God never suffers them to touch all The maine design of persecutors but the maine design is wholly to root out godlines and the people of God that they may not be a Nation For if you consider the ground of persecution it is not any one particular thing in a person but the designe of Satan whose part they act who is the old serpent is to overthrow the whole Kingdome of God to destroy the seed of the woman therefore whosoever sets himself against one his aime is if he observe his own heart if he could to destroy all And in the times before when men durst speak the language of their hearts Bonner would say I wish that all the hereticks were in a sack in the midst of the Sea And many Bishops among us have gloried that they had not one Puritan left in their Diocess And some of late have bragged that they hoped their would not be roome for one puritan in England before those scurvie names that are rife among us now came up It may be if we observe we shall hear some of the same phrases still though the words be altered the designe is the same Come let us cut them off from being a Nation You see that Satan is not willing to have one Saint on earth not one ordinance or one Gospell-sermon It is too low a designe for Satan to aime at a particular person Just as it was with Haman in the book of Hester he might have punished Mordecai if he would but it was too low a thing he would cut of the whole seed of the Iews that there should not be one left That is the reason that Pareus a learned man gives why the Saints are said to be a people that are not 1 Cor. 1. because the people of the world wish that they were not the world desires that they were not nor any thing that belongs to them Therefore I beseech you take this caveat from the Lord that you would take heed how you carry your selves against the Saints though they be but some few particular persons though it may be there may be some weakness in them that may provoke your corruptions for if you once begin to fall on persecuting to oppose Christ Iesus or his people though you begin with a few first one and then another you will unawares fall into the tide into the streame to