Recreations when and how to pray what time for our Callings what for Worship when to speak when to hold our peace when to praise and when to reprove how to give and how to take when to scatter when to keep back or withhold and to order all things aright requireth a sound Judgment that we carry our selves with that gravity and seriousness that exactness and tenderness that we may keep up the Majesty of Religion and all the World may know that he is wise by whose Counsel we are guided But alas where this sound Judgment and Discretion is wanting we shall soon offend and transgress the Laws of Piety Charity Justice Sobriety Piety and Godliness will not be orderly we shall either be guilty of a prophane neglect of that course of Duty that is necessary to keep in the Life of Grace or turn Religion into a sowre Superstition and rigorous course of Observances Charity will not be orderly we shall give to wastfulness or withhold more than is meet to the scandal or prejudice of the World towards Religion Not perform Justice we shall govern to God's dishonour obey to his wrong punish with too much severity or forbear with too much lenity our Reproofs will be Reproaches our Praises Flattery Sobriety will not be orderly we shall deny our selves our necessary Comforts or use them as an occasion to the Flesh either afflict the Body and make our selves unserviceable or wrong the Soul and burden and oppress it with vain Delights In short even the higher Acts of Religion will degenerate our Fear will be turned into Desperation or our Hope into Presumption our Faith will be a light Credulity or our search after Truth will turn into a flat Scepticism or Irresolution our Patience will be Stupidness or our Constancy Obstinacy we shall either slight the hand of God or faint under it so that there is need of good Judgment and Knowledge to guide us in all our ways 2. Why this is so earnestly to be sought of God the thing is evident from what is said already but farther 1. Because this is a great defect in most Christians who have many times good Affections but no Prudence to guide and order them they are indeed all Affection but no Judgment have a Zeal but without Knowledg Rom. 10. 3. Zeal should be like Fire which is not onely fervidus but lucidus hot but bright a blind Horse may be full of Mettle but he is ever and anon stumbling Oh then should we not earnestly seek of God good Knowledge and Judgment the Spirit of God knoweth what is best for us in the Scriptures he hath endited Prayers Phil. 1. 9. This I pray that your Love may abound more and more in Knowledge and in all Iudgment That our Love and Zeal should have a proportionable measure of Knowledge and Judgment going along with it And Colos. 1. 9. That ye may be filled with the Knowledge of his Will in all Wisdome and spiritual Understanding And again Colos. 3. 16. Let the word of God dwell in you richly in all wisdome These places shew that it is not enough to have warm Affections but we must have a clear and a sound Mind 2. The Mischief which ariseth from this Defect is so great to themselves to others and the Church of God 1. To themselves 1. Without the distinguishing or discerning act of Judgment how apt are we to be misled and deceived they that cannot distinguish Meats will soon eat what is unwholsome so if we have not a Judgment to approve things that are Excellent and disapprove the contrary our Fancies will deceive us for they are taken with every slight appearance as Eve was deceived by the Fruit because it was fair to see to Gen. 3. 6. with 2 Cor. 11. 3. For I fear lest by any means as the Serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. Our Affections will deceive us for they judge by Interest and profit not Duty and Conscience The Affections are easily bribed by those bastard goods of Pleasure Honour and Profit 2 Cor. 4. 4. In whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not The consent of the World will deceive us for they may conspire in Errour and Rebellion against God and are usually the opposite party against God Rom. 12. 2. And be not conformed to this world but be ye transformed by the renewing of your minds Good men may deceive us true and faithfull Ministers may erre both in Doctrine and Manners as the old Prophet seduced the young one to his own Destruction 1 Kings 13. 18. He said unto him I am a Prophet also and an Angel spake unto me by the word of the Lord saying Bring him back with thee into thy house that he may eat bread and drink water But he lied unto him In what a wofull plight then are Christians if they have not a Judgment and a Test to tast Doctrines and try things as the Mouth tasteth Meats how easily shall we take good for evil and evil for good condemning that which God approveth and approving that which God condemneth 2. Without the determining Act of Judgment how fickle and irresolute shall we be either in the Profession or in the Practice of Godliness Many Mens Religion lasts but for a pang it cometh upon them now and then it is not their constant frame and constitution For want of this purpose and resolute peremptory decree for the Profession of Godliness there is an uncertainty levity and wavering in Religion Men take up Opinions lightly and leave them as lightly again Light Chaff is carried about with every wind Eph. 4 14. That we henceforth be no more Children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of Doctrine by the slight of men and cunning craftiness whereby they lie in wait to deceive If we receive the Truth upon the credit of men we may be led off again and we shall be ready to stagger when Persecution cometh especially if we see those men from whom we have learned the Truth fall away if we have not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a stedfastness of our own 2 Pet. 3. 17. Beware lest ye also being led away by the errour of the wicked fall from your own stedfastness Men should have a stedfastness proper to themselves not stand by the stedfastness of another the examples of others the countenance or applause of the World or the Opinion of good men but convincing Reason by which their Minds may be inlightened and their Judgments set for God So for Practice we are off and on unstable in all our ways why because we content our selves with some good Motions before we have brought our hearts to this Conclusion to choose God for our Portion and to cleave to him all in hast they will be religious but suddain imperfect Motions may be easily laid aside and given over by contrary
charity Phil. 4. 5. Let your moderation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be known unto all men whether it be fear or honour that be due Rom. 13. 7. Render therefore to all their dues Tribute to whom Tribute is due Custom to whom Custome fear to whom fear honour to whom honour Or good will ver 8. Owe no man any thing but to love one another Secondly For truth You are to adhere to the truth not to be carried about with every wind of Doctrine by the sleight of men and cunning craftiness whereby they lye in wait to deceive but speaking the truth in love ye may grow up unto him in all things which is the head even Christ Ephes. 4. 14 15. To speak nothing but truth in your ordinary communication Ephes. 4. 25. Wherefore putting away lying speak every man truth with his Neighbour To perform what you promise though to your loss Psal. 15. 4. He sweareth to his own hurt and changeth not Thus should the whole course of our lives express the properties of the Word Use 3. To shew the reason why men are so backward in obedience so prone to what is evil so uncomfortable in trouble We do not believe that the testimony of God is righteous and true very true every tittle of it but we are slow of heart to believe therefore is the faithfulness and truth of the Word inculcated Christ saith Believest thou this John 11. 25. Could we believe the word more what advantage should we have in the spiritual life what fear of God what joy of faith what readiness of obedience But we cannot depend upon Gods word and therefore are easily shaken in mind Our hearts are like a Sea one Wave riseth up after another We must be fed with sense and God must do all immediately or else we are apt to sink under our discouragements SERMON CLVI PSALM CXIX VER Cxxxix My zeal hath consumed me because mine Enemies have forgotten thy Words IN these words you may observe 1. Two different persons 2. A different carriage mentioned 1. Two different persons are spoken of David and his Enemies By Enemies is not to be understood those only that were troublesome to himself but those who were an opposite party to God who opposed themselves against God and Godliness these without any breach of the Law of love may be counted Enemies Ps. 139. 21 22. Do not I hate them O Lord that hate thee And am not I grieved with those that rise up against thee I hate them with a perfect hatred I count them mine Enemies It is a comfort and satisfaction to the godly to have no enemies to themselves but such as are enemies to God also such as rise up against God 2. There 's a different carriage mentioned and asscribed to these two parties on the one side Oblivion and Forgetfulness of Gods Law on the other side zeal 1. On the Enemies part oblivion and forgetfulness of Gods Word The Word of God is not effectual usually but where it is hid in recent memory They have forgotten thy Word a proper phrase to set forth them in the bosom of the visible Church who do not wholly deny and reject the Word and Rule of Scripture but yet live as though they had forgotten it they do not observe it as if God had never spoken any such thing or given them any such Rule They that reject and contemn such things as thy Word enforceth surely do not remember to do them 2. On David's part here is mentioned zeal or a flagrant affection which is set forth 1. By the vehemency of it 2. By the cause of it 1. By the vehemency of it my zeal hath consumed me It was no small zeal that David had but a consuming zeal Vehement affections exhaust and consume the vital Spirits and wast the body The like expression is used Ps. 69. 9. The zeal of thy House hath eaten me up Strength of Holy Affections works many times upon the Body as well as the Soul especially zeal which is a high degree of Love and vents it self by a mixture of grief and anger What a man loves he would have it respected and is grieved when it is dishonoured and under disrepute Both have an influence upon this consuming this wasting of the Spirits that is spoken of in the text because they had lessened and obscured the Glory of God and violated his Law and there was in him a holy care ardour and earnest endeavour to rectifie this abuse and awaken them out of their security and reduce them to their duty 2. Here was the Cause of it Why was David so much wasted pined consumed and troubled Because they have forgotten Thy Word the contempt of God and the offence of God sate nearest his heart as if he had said I should more patiently bear the injury done to my self but I cannot be coldly affected where thy glory O Lord is concerned since I have had a tast of thy grace and felt the benefit of thy Word I cannot endure it should be contemned and it much moves me to see Creatures so mad upon their own Destruction and to make so light of thy Salvation Thus was David consumed not at the sight of his own but at other mens sins and not at others in general but them his enemies that they should make void the Law of God Such was his love to the Word that he could not endure the contempt and violation of it and such was his Compassion to the souls of men that it grieved him exceedingly to see any of the workmanship of God to perish to be captivated to the World to be made Factors for the Devil and fuel for hell fire and to be so violent for their own Destruction Doctrine That Great and Pure Zeal becomes those that have any affection for the Word and for the Ways of God Here is a great zeal for David saith my zeal hath consumed me it prey'd upon his spirit And here 's a pure zeal for he mentions not personal injuries but disrespect to Gods Word when the same men are our Enemies and Gods Enemies we should be more zealous for Gods cause then our own Now both the greatness and purity of his zeal did arise from his love to the Word as appears from the precedent and subsequent verses in the precedent verses he had told them just and upright are thy testimonies and very faithful therefore zeal hath consumed me because this Word should be slighted and contemned And it appears also from the following verse thy Word is very pure therefore thy servant loveth it He was troubled to see such a holy and pure Word to be trampled under foot and especially that those seem to disown it he doth not say they deny it who had generally profest to live under this rule that they made light and disregarded the precepts in which I found so much comfort and delight In the prosecution of this point I shall 1. Shew what is true Zeal
superstitious Holiness may seem to make a fair shew but it is destructive to true Godliness and Scriptural Holiness which guides us to Communion with God When mens zeal boils over in a false pretended Holiness it quencheth the fire and destroys true Godliness and Religion Excess is monstrous as well as defect Therefore still we must consult with the Law and Rule that we may not come short or over Secondly As the Law must be consulted with that it may inform us so that it may awe us and hold us under a sense of our duty to God By the Law is the knowledg of sin Rom. 3. 19. Usually most Christians live by rote and do not study their Rule would a man worship God so coldly and customarily if he did consider the rule which requires such heedfulness of soul fervency of Spirit diligent attendance upon God in his Ordinances Would a man allow himself liberty of vain speeches idle talk and suffer his tongue to run riot if he did consult with the Rule and remembred that light words would weigh heavy in Gods Ballance These are condemned by the Law of liberty Iam. 2. 12. So speak and so do as those that shall be Iudged by the Law of liberty Would a man be so slight in heavenly things so disorderly and intemperate in the use of pleasure and pursuit of worldly profit if he did consider the Rule and what a Holy moderation God hath required of us upon all occasions This is the first thing namely the Rule which is the Law of God Secondly There 's a conformity to this Rule If you would be blessed there must be a sincere constant uniform Obedience The will of God must not only be known but practised many will conclude that Gods Law in the Theory is the only direction to true blessedness but now to take it for their Rule to keep close to it not one of a thousand doth that 1. Then sincere obedience is required Blessed is the undefiled in the way At first hearing of these words a man might reply Oh then none can be blessed if that be the qualification For who can say my heart is clean Prov. 20. 9. I answer This undefiledness is to be understood according to the tenor of the second Covenant which doth not exclude the mercy of God and the justification of penitent sinners Psal. 130. 3 4. If thou Lord shouldst mark iniquities who shall stand But there is mercy with thee There is no escaping condemnation and the curse if God should deal with us according to strict justice and require an absolute undefiledness Well then this qualification must be understood as I said in the sense of the second Covenant and what 's that sincerity of sanctification when a man doth carefully endeavour to keep his garments unspotted from the world and to approve himself to God when this is his constant exercise to avoid all offence both towards God and man Acts 24. 16. and is cautious and watchful lest he should be defiled when he is humbled more for his pollutions when he is always purging his heart and doth endeavour and that with success to walk in the way of God here 's the undefiledness in a Gospel sense Psal. 84. 11. The Lord will be a sun and a shield c. to whom to those that walk uprightly This is possible enough here 's no ground of despair This is that will lead us to blessedness when we are troubled for our failings and there is a diligent exercise in the purification of our hearts 2. A constant obedience Wicked men have their good moods and devout pangs in the way to Heaven but they are not lasting They will go with God a step or two but it is said He that walketh in the law of the Lord. A wicked man prays himself weary of prayer and professeth himself weary of holiness A man is judged by the tenour of his life not by one action but as he holdeth on his way to Heaven Iob 27. 10. Many run well for a while but are soon out of breath Enoch walked with God three hundred sixty five years 3. An uniform and an intire obedience Exod. 20. 1. God spake all these words He commandeth one thing as well as another and conscience takes hold of all To single out what pleaseth us is to make our selves Gods A servant doth not chuse his work but the Master A child of God is uniform in one place as well as another at home and abroad in all the passages of his life in prosperity and adversity whether he abound or whether he be abased Phil. 4. He is not like Ephraim as a Cake not turned but there 's an uniformity Doth he make conscience of piety and worship and will he not make conscience of honesty and just dealing with men Will he make conscience of his actions and will he not of his words He doth not give up himself to idle speech and vain discourse An hypocrite is best when he is taken in pieces but a sincere man is best when he is taken all together A Christian is always like himself It is notable in the story of the Creation that God views every days work and God saw that it was good he viewed it all together and God saw all things that he had made and behold it was very good When he did consider the whole correspondence of his Works how it answered one another then God was delighted in it So a Christian is most delighted in the review of his course and walking according to the Commandment Thirdly What respect hath this to true blessedness It is the way to it Blessed are the undefiled in the way who walk in the Law of the Lord. This will appear in two respects 1. It is the beginning of blessedness Likeness to God is the foundation of glory Conformity to him will be carried on from glory to glory 2 Cor. 3. 18. And as conformity unto so communion with God in the beauties of holiness is the beginning of happiness As for me I will behold thy face in righteousness I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy likeness Psal. 17. 15. 2. Sincere and constant obedience is the evidence of our right to future blessedness A man hath somewhat to shew for it Matt. 5. 8. It is an inclusive evidence Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God and it is an exclusive evidence Heb. 12. 14. Without holiness no man shall see the Lord. Well then when this is our way and course we may expect happiness hereafter The Uses are 1. To shew you that carnal men live as if they sought misery rather than happiness Prov. 8. 36. He that sins against me wrongs his own soul. All that hate me love death If a man were travelling to York who would say his aim was to come to London Do these men pursue happiness that walk in such defilement It is the way of Gods Law that leads to true blessedness 2.
soon is the edg of his bravery taken off Dan. 5. 5 6. Haman in the midst of his honours was troubled at the heart for want of Mordecai's knee Those things which seem to affect us so much cannot allay one unquiet passion certainly cannot still and pacifie the least storm of the Conscience and therefore what ever face men put upon temporal enjoyments if they cannot see Gods special love in them they want sincere joy There is many a smart lash they feel when the world hears not the stroke Prov. 14. 13. Even in laughter the heart is sorrowful and the end of that mirth is heaviness All the laughter and merriment which men seem to receive from the Creature it is but a little appearance not such as will go to the Conscience that will indeed and throughly rejoice and comfort a man and give him solid joy 3. There wants eternity An Immortal soul must have an eternal good pleasures for evermore Psal. 16. ult In this world we have but a poor changeable happiness Luk. 12. 19. 't was said to the rich fool This night thy soul shall be required of thee Thus much for the first Branch Blessed art thou O Lord. II. I come from the Compellation to the Supplication Teach me thy statutes And here observe 1 The person teaching he speaks to God Do thou O God teach 2 We may consider the person taught Teach me I that have hid the word in my heart David that was a Prophet is willing to be a Disciple Those that teach others have need that God should teach them the Prophet saith Teach me O Lord. David a grown Christian he desires more understanding of Gods will Certainly we should still follow on to know the Lord Hos. 6. 3. Heathens that only knew natural and moral things yet they saw a need of growth and the more they knew the more they discovered their ignorance and always as they grew elder they grew wiser How much more sensible would they have been of their defects in the knowledg of spiritual things if they had in a little measure been acquainted with the mysteries of godliness that pass all understanding and are so much from humane sense and above the capacities of our reason Prov. 30. 3. Agur said I neither learned wisdom nor have the knowledg of the holy There is very much yet to be learned of God and of his ways Many think they know all that can be taught them David a great Prophet a man after Gods own heart yet is earnest that God would teach him his statutes 3 The lesson or matter to be taught Thy Statutes so he calls the Word because the Doctrines of it have the force of a Law published they do unalterably bind and that the soul and conscience and therefore the Precepts Counsels and Doctrines of the Word are all called statutes The Point is Doct. If we would know Gods statutes so as to keep them we must be taught of God Here I shall enquire 1. What it is or how doth God teach us 2. The necessity of this teaching 3. The benefit and utility of it First How doth God teach us Outwardly by his Ordinance by the Ministry of man Inwardly by the inspiration and work of the Holy Ghost 1. The outward teaching is Gods teaching because it is an Ordinance which is appointed by him now both these must ever go together external and internal teaching Despise not Prophecy Quench not the Spirit If you would have any enlightning and quickning of the Spirit you must not despise Prophecy We teach you here and God blesseth Jesus Christ when he comes to teach his Disciples first he openeth the Scripture Luk. 24. 37. And then v. 45. he opened their understandings Of Lydia it is said God opened her heart in attending to the things spoken by Paul Act. 16. 14. She was attending and then God openeth her heart When the Eunuch was reading then God sends an Interpreter The outward means are necessary it is Gods teaching in part but the inward grace especially Both these must go together for it is said Ioh. 6. 45. Every man that hath heard and hath learned of the Father cometh unto me There must be a hearing of the Word and so there is a teaching from God But 2. The inward teaching which is the work of the Spirit that needs most to be opened What is that it consists in two things 1 When God infuseth light into the understanding so as we come to apprehend the things of God in a spiritual manner Psal. 36. 9. In thy light shall we see light There is no discerning spiritual things spiritually but in Gods light There may be a literal instruction which one man may give to another But in thy light only shall we see light such a lively affective knowledg as disposeth the heart for the enjoyment of God There is a seeing and a seeing in seeing Isa. 6. 10. Lest in seeing they shall see A man may see a truth rationally that doth not see it spiritually now when we have the Spirits light then in seeing we see Or as the Apostle calls it Col. 1. 6. A knowing of the grace of God in truth Since you did not only take up the report but feel it and had some experience of it in your hearts Again 2 Gods teaching it consisteth not only in enlightning the understanding but in moving and inclining the heart and the will for Gods teaching is always accompanied with drawing Ioh. 6. 44. No man cometh to me except the Father draw him which Christ proves v. 45. Because they shall be all taught of God The Spirits light is not only directive but perswasive it is effectual to alter and to change the affections and to carry them out to Christ and to his ways he works powerfully where he teacheth When the Holy Ghost was first poured out upon the Apostles there was a notable effect of it It came in the appearance of â—…ven tongues like as of fire Act. 2. 3. to shew the manner of the Spirits operation by the Ministry not only as light but as fire it is a burning and shining light that is such a light as is seasoned with zeal and love that affects the heart that burns up our corruptions And therefore you know when Christ would put forth a Divine effect in his conference with his two Disciples it is said Their hearts burned within them while he talked with them Luk. 24. 32. There 's a warmth and heat convey'd to the Soul Thus for the nature of this Teaching Secondly The necessity of this Teaching will appear in several things 1. If we consider the weakness of a natural understanding 1 Cor. 2. 14. The natural man receiveth not the thing of the spirit of God because they are spiritually discerned They must be spiritually understood There must be a cognation and proportion between the object and the faculty Divine things cannot be seen but by a Divine light and spiritual things by a
〈◊〉 unmixed milk The more natural the milk is and without any mixture the more kindly to a gracious appetite To mix it with Sugar and the luscious strains of a humane wit doth but disguise it and hide it from a spiritual tast But to mix it with Lime as Hierome saith of Hereticks makes it baneful and noxious Thus he speaks of his faithfulness as a Prophet a publick Teacher in the Church 2. As to the extent all the Judgments of thy mouth without adding or diminishing No part of Gods counsel must be forborn either out of fear or favour Our work is not to look what will please or displease but what is commanded Acts 20. 27. I have not shunned to declare the whole counsel of God If it be the counsel of God let it succeed how it will it must be spoken so David here all the judgments of thy mouth 3. David may be considered as a private Christian and so I would declare all the judgments of thy mouth in a way of conference and gracious discourse This is the sense I shall manage The Consideration I shall insist upon is this Doct. It concerns all that fear God to declare upon meet occasions the Iudgments of his mouth How in the way of publick teaching shall every one that hath knowledg and parts teach I answer No there are some separate for that work Act. 13. 2. Separate unto me Paul and Barnabas for the work whereunto I have called them Paul and Barnabas were gifted and called by the Spirit yet were to be solemnly authorized by Prophets and Teachers at Antioch by Officers of the Church Was it not enough they were called by the Holy Ghost What can man add more There must be Order in the Church though they were called yet they were to be ordained and to have a solemn Commission It is true all Christians are Prophets yet they are not to invade the Office Ministerial As they are also all Kings yet they are not to usurp the Magistracy or to disturb the Ruler in his Government If Christians would but meditate more and see how much they have to do to preach to their own hearts if they would but regard the unquestionable duty that they owe to their Families more this itch of publick preaching would be much abated and many other confusions and disorders among us would be prevented and they would sooner find the Lords blessing upon interchangeable discourse gracious conferences than this affectation of Sermoning and set-discourses Well then we are to declare the Judgments of his mouth not by way of publick teaching but by way of private conference edifying others and glorifying God by the knowledg and experience that we have First In our own Families Secondly In our Converses 1. In our own Families in training up children and servants in the way of the Lord and inculcating the Doctrine of God upon them This is a commanded duty as you may see Deut. 6. 6 7. And these words which I command thee this day shall be in thine heart What then and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house and when thou walkest by the way and when thou lyest down and when thou risest up Morning and evening rising up and lying down at home and abroad they should be instructing their Families When the word of God is in the heart thus it will break out And ch 11. 19. you have the same again This is a duty God reckoneth upon that you will not omit such a necessary piece of service Gen. 18. 19. I know Abraham that he will command his children and his houshold after him and they shall keep the way of the Lord. God promiseth himself that from Abraham and his Family he should have respect God hath made many great promises to Abraham as he doth now to all believers but if you would have him bring upon you that which he hath spoken you must not disappoint him The seasoning of youth betimes in your Families is a very great advantage The Family is the Seminary of the Church and State and usually those that are bred ill in the Family they prove ill when they come abroad A fault in the first concoction is not mended in the second and therefore here you should be declaring the mind and counsel of God to them Many that afterwards prove eminent Instruments of Gods glory will bless you for it to all Eternity It is the best love you can express to your children when you take care to season them with the best things A husband is charged to love his wife how shall he express this love Eph. 5. 25 26. Even as Christ also loved the Church and gave himself for it that he might sanctifie and cleanse it c. I suppose the degree is not only commended for a Pattern but the kind it must be such a love as Christ bore to his Church He gave himself for her that he might sanctifie her It must be such a love as tends to sanctification It is a poor kind of love Parents express to their Children in providing great Estates and Portions for them or bringing them up in Trades that they may thrive in the world but when you train them up for Heaven there 's the best love Prov. 4. 3 4. For I was my fathers son he was the Darling tender and only beloved in the sight of my mother And wherein was that love exprest He taught me also and said unto me Let thine heart retain my words keep my commandments and live So for servants it is not enough to provide bodily maintenance for them so we do for the beasts if we would use their strength and service but we are to instruct them according to our Talents and that 's the best love we can shew to provide for their souls 2. In our Converses speaking of God and of his word in all companies instructing the ignorant warning and quickning the negligent encouraging the good casting out some savoury discourse wherever we come So Psal. 37. 30. The mouth of the righteous speaketh wisdom and his tongue talketh of judgment A good man studieth in his speeches to glorifie God to edifie those he speaks to I will declare thy judgments saith David Wise and gracious discourse drops from him So Cant. 4. 11. Thy lips O my Spouse drop as the honey-comb honey and milk are under thy tongue The passages of that Song are to be understood in a spiritual sense now the lips and the tongue being Instruments of speech and milk and honey things by which the word is exprest I suppose it is meant of a conference and because the word of God is compared to milk and honey-comb it shews that their conference should be gracious and edifying this is that which drops from a sanctified mouth For the Reasons of this 1. I shall argue from the interest which God hath in the lips and tongue and therefore they
are some that a man had need teach them as he teacheth little children letter after letter and line after line little good done 2. In others there is a Grammatical knowledg but not a spiritual a repeating things by rote a talking of all that a Christian enjoyeth 3. Besides the Grammatical knowledg there is a Dogmatical knowledg when the truths of the word are not only understood but begin to settle into an opinion that we bustle for in the world An opinionative receiving of the truth is different from a saving receiving of the truth Many are Orthodox or have so much judgment and knowledg as to hold the Truth strictly but the heart is not possessed with the life and power of it Those are intended in Rom. 2. 20. An instructer of the foolish a teacher of babes which have the form of knowledg and of the truth in the law And such are described 2 Tim. 3. 8. Having a form of godliness but denying the power thereof It is not to be imagined that this is always in design though many times carnal men swim with the stream and take up with the opinions that are currant in their age but also out of conviction of judgment there is somewhat of conscience in it A sound judgment is a different thing from a sound heart The truths of God have great evidence with them and therefore a rational man being helped with some common work of the Spirit may close with them though they have no experience of the power and prevailing influence of them 4. Besides this Dogmatical knowledg by which we see round about the compass of Truths revealed in the word there is a gracious illumination when men are taught so as drawn to God Iohn 6. 44 45. and they do so understand Christs Doctrine as to apply and make a right use of it such a knowledg as is called not only sight but taste 1 Pet. 2. 3. If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious and a feeling of what we understand Phil. 1. 9. And this I pray that your love may abound more and more in knowledg and in all judgment This sense and experimental knowledg is that which the Saints seek after 2. The Uses of this spiritual illumination And 1. To give us a clear sight of the Truths of God 2. An applicative sight 3. An affective sight 4. A transforming sight 5. Such a sense of the Truth as is prevalent over lusts and interests 1. A clear sight of the Truths of God Others have but an hear-say-knowledg gathered out of Books and Sermons and the common report which is made of Christ but he that is divinely enlightned drinks of the Fountain and so his draught is more fresh and sweet they do not talk of things by rote after others but it is written upon their hearts Heb. 8. 10. I will put my laws into their mind and write them in their hearts and so groweth more intimate and satisfactory and moving upon them 2. An Applicative sight not only knowledg but prudence Prov. 8. 12. I Wisdom dwell with Prudence Wisdom is the knowledg of Principles Prudence is an ability to apply them to our comfort and use that we may know it for our good Iob 5. 28. Many are right in generals but the Spirit doth not only reveal the Truths of the Gospel but applieth those Truths to awaken the conscience that was asleep in sin Many men that are unrenewed may be stored with general truths concerning the misery of man redemption by Christ the priviledges of a Christian but they do not reflect the light of these truths upon themselves so as to consider their own case and so it serveth rather for matter of opinion and discourse than for life and conversation it is not directive 3. An Affective sight Prov. 2. 10. When wisdom entreth upon thy heart which is the seat of affections it stirs up in the soul answerable motions to every truth Whereas when truths rest in empty barren notions without feeling and an answerable touch upon the heart the knowledg of them is like a Winters Sun that shineth but warmeth not the misery of man is not affective and Doctrines of Redemption by Christ are apprehended without any joy and relish 4. A Transforming sight 2 Cor. 3. 18. We all with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord are changed into the same image from glory to glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord. It is a Light that is both Directive and Persuasive A man may hear the Gospel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when it is only known as a rule not as a means to convey the Spirit whereas a believer hears the Law 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Apostle preferreth the Gospel above the Law in the forementioned place for comfortableness perspicuity efficacy c. 5. It is a Light that prevaileth over our lusts and interests such a Light as hath fire in it to destroy lusts 1 John 2. 3 4. He that saith I know him and doth not keep his commandments is a lyar A true knowledg and sight of God is able to bridle lusts and purifie the conscience Therefore it is said He that doth evil hath not seen God Eph. 3. 11. hath not a true sight whatever speculations he may have about the nature of God Other light doth not check and controul vicious desires Reason is not restored to its dominion Rom. 1. 18. the reputed wise men of the world held the truth in unrighteousness Truth may talk its fill but can do nothing as a man that is bound hand and foot may rave and evaporate his passions but cannot relieve himself from the oppressor or the force that he is under II. Reasons that shew the necessity of this work 1. Spiritual blindness is natural to us as that man that was blind from his birth Iohn 9. 1. We are not all born blind in body but all in mind By tasting the tree of knowledg all Adam's sons have lost their knowledg Satan hath brought a greater shame upon us than Nahash the Ammonite would have brought upon the men of Iabesh Gilead in putting out their right eyes The eye of the soul is put out so as we cannot see the light that shineth in the word By the Fall we lost the true and perfect light of Reason but retain the pride of Reason It is no small part of our blindness that we cannot endure to hear of it Rev. 3. 17. Thou sayest I am rich and encreased with goods and have need of nothing and knowest not that thou art wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked Man desireth to be thought sinful rather than weak and will sooner own a wickedness in Morals than a weakness in Intellectuals Men are dishonest out of choice and therefore think there is more of liberty and bravery in it but to be simple argueth imperfection Job 11. 12. Vain man would be accounted wise though man be born like a
lusts and worldly interests The next reason is because they must be spiritually discerned that is to know them inwardly throughly and with some relish and savour there must be an higher light there must be a cognation and proportion between the object and the faculty Divine things must be seen by a divine light and spiritual things by a spiritual light Sense which is the light of beasts cannot trace the workings or flights of Reason in her contemplations We cannot see a Soul or an Angel by the light of a Candle so fleshly wisdom cannot judg of divine things The object must be not only revealed but we must have an answerable light so that when you have done all you must say How can I understand without an Interpreter Acts 8. 31. And this Interpreter must be the Spirit of God Ejus est interpretari cujus est condere To discern so as to make a right judgment and estimate of things dependeth upon Gods help 4. When this blindness is in part cured yet still we need that God should open our eyes to the very last We know nothing as we ought to know David a regenerate man and well instructed prayeth to have his eyes opened for we need more light every day Luk. 24. 45. Then opened he their understandings that they might understand the Scriptures Christ first opened the Scriptures then he opened their understandings USE 1. To shew us the reason why the word prevaileth so little when it is preached with power and evidence their eyes are not opened Isa. 53. 1. Who hath believed our report and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed No teaching will prevail till we are taught of God USE 2. What need we have to consult with God whenever we make use of the word in Reading Hearing Study In Reading when thou openest the Bible to read say Lord open mine eyes When thou Hearest beg a sight of the Truth and how to apply it for thy comfort Haec audiunt quasi somniantes Luther saith of the most In seeing they see not in hearing they hear not There was a Fountain by Hagar but she could not see it Gen. 21. 19. God opened her eyes and she saw a well of water and she went and filled the bottle with water and gave the Lad to drink So for Study it is dangerous to set upon the study of divine things in the strength of wit and human helps Men go forth in the strength of their own parts or lean upon the judgment of Writers and so are left in darkness and confusion We would sooner come to the decision of a truth if we would go to God and desire him to rend the vail of Prejudices and Interests USE 3. Is to press us to seek after this blessing the opening of the eyes Magnifie the creating-power of God 2 Cor. 4. 6. God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness hath shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledg of God in the face of Iesus Christ. Make use of Christ Col. 2. 5. In whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledg Beg it earnestly of him the Apostle prayeth Eph. 1. 17 18. That the God of our Lord Iesus Christ the Father of glory may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledg of him The eyes of your understanding being enlightned that ye may know what is the hope of his calling c. Yea mourn for it in cases of dubious anxiety Iohn wept when the book of the seven seals was not opened Rev. 5. 4. Mourn over your ignorance refer all to practice Joh. 7. 17. If any man will do his will he shall know of the doctrine whether it be of God or whether I speak of my self Wait for light in the use of means with a simple docile sincere humble mind Psal. 25. 9. The meek will he guide in judgment and the meek will he teach his way Doct. 2. Those whose eyes are opened by God they see wondrous things in his word more than ever they thought Open thou mine eyes that I may behold wondrous things out of thy Law Law is not taken strictly for the Covenant of works nor for the Decalogue as a Rule of life but more generally for the whole word of God which is full of wonders or high and heavenly mysteries In the Decalogue or Moral Law there is wonderful purity when we get a spiritual sense of it Psal. 119. 96. I have seen an end of all perfection but thy commandments are exceeding broad and Psal. 19. 7 8. The law of the Lord is perfect converting the soul the testimony of the Lord is sure making wise the simple the statutes of the Lord are right rejoycing the heart the commandment of the Lord is pure enlightning the eyes A wonderful Equity Rom. 7. 12. The law is holy and the commandment is holy just and good A marvellous wisdom Deut. 4. 6. Keep therefore and do them for this is your wisdom and understanding in the sight of the Nations which shall hear all these statutes and say Surely this great Nation is a wise and understanding people In the whole word of God the harmony and correspondence between all the parts how the mystery grew from a dark revelation to clearer is admirable In the Gospel every Article of faith is a mystery to be wondered at the Person of Christ 1 Tim. 3. 16. Great is the mystery of godliness God manifested in the flesh justified in the spirit c. A Virgin conceiveth the Word is made flesh the redemption and reconciliation of mankind is the wonderful work of the Lords Grace It is the hidden wisdom of God in a mystery 1 Cor. 2. 7. We speak the wisdom of God in a mystery even the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the world to our glory And 't is called the mystery hidden from ages Eph. 3. 9. The glory of heaven is admirable Eph. 1. 18. The riches of the glory of the Inheritance of the Saints in light That a clod of earth should be made an heir of heaven deserves the highest wonder All these are mysteries So the wonderful effects of the word in convincing sinners 1 Cor. 14. 25. Thus are the secrets of his heart made manifest and so falling down on his face he will worship God and report that God is in you of a truth Heb. 4. 12. The word of God is quick and powerful sharper than a two-edged sword piercing to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and joynts and marrow and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart It is a searching and discovering word John 4. 29. See a man that hath told me all that ever I did In changing sinners 1 Pet. 2. 9. That ye may shew forth the praises of him that hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light Peter's getting out of prison was nothing to it In comforting Every Grace is a Mystery to depend upon
glances and imperfect knowledg of our estate and so are not affected as we should a particular view of things most works with us Look as Christ the more particularly he is set forth the more taking is the object when the lump of sweetness is dissolved then it is tasted The more particularly we pry into our estate the more we are affected and the more we shall see of the deceitfulness of our own hearts When every one shall know his own sore and grief 2 Chron. 8. 29. 4. It will be of great advantage in the spiritual life to declare often our whole estate to God for the more men know themselves the more they mind God and their heavenly calling Those men that make conscience of declaring themselves to God will ever find lusts to be mortified doubts to be resolved graces to be strengthned A man that doth not look after his estate it runs into decay insensibly before he is aware So when men grow negligent of their hearts and never think of giving an account to God all runs to wast in the soul. Searching and self-examining Christians will be the most serious Christians for as they have a more distinct affective sense of their condition so they always find more work to do in the spiritual life They come to know what are their sins and assaults and conflicts and what further strength they may have in the way of holiness and by this account they are engaged to walk more exactly that they may not provide matter against themselves 1 Pet. 3. 7. that their prayers be not hindred that they may look God in the face with more confidence USE 1. Let us clearly and openly declare our condition to the Lord our griefs and sorrows and so our sins First Our griefs and sorrows Two things will quicken you to this 1. The inconvenience of any other way What will you do If you swallow your griefs that will oppress the heart The more we unbosome our selves to a friend the more we find ease vent and utterance doth lessen our passion An Oven stopt up is hotter within so the more close we are the more we keep our own counsel the greater is our burden Look as wind when it is imprisoned in the caverns of the earth it causeth violent Convulsions and Earthquakes but if it find vent all is quiet so it is with the heart when troubles are kept close then they become the greater burden they make the heart stormy full of discontent but when we open our selves as Hannah did her case to God 1 Sam. 1. 8. we are no more sad or if we go to any thing on this side God our troubles encrease When a man hath sorrow upon his heart it is not the next ditch will yield him refreshing and comfort but he must go to the fountain of living water If we be afraid of an enemy without our business is to strike in with God Prov. 16. 7. When a mans ways please the Lord he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him God hath the command of all things he is first to be treated with then there is hope and relief in God When we are humble and tractable in our affliction when we come and represent our case to him the very thing gives us some hope for the Lord doth all out of mercy Therefore the very representing our misery as David Psal. 69. 29. But I am poor and sorrowful that we are in a miserable forlorn condition if you have nothing else to plead this is that which moves God and works upon his bowels Look as beggars to move pity will uncover their sores that as it were by a silent Oratory they may extort and draw forth relief from you so go to the Lord and acquaint him with your condition some hope will arise hence Lord I am weak and poor deliver me that 's all the argument 2. As to sins let me tell you Go to God with clearness and openness reveal your whole state tell him what are your temptations and conflicts and how your heart works Though he knows it already by his own Omnisciency yet let him know it by your own acknowledgments Let him not know it as a Judg take notice of it so as to punish you but go deal plainly and confess your sins To this end 1. There will be need of light that you may be able to judg of things Heb. 5. 14. They have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil When a man hath not only a speculative knowledg but hath his senses exercised able to judg of the workings of his own heart he can discern what 's of flesh and what 's of spirit and so can give an account to God When we have not only some naked Theory we shall be able to see what 's a temptation where our help and where our weakness lyes 2. There needs observation of the workings of our own hearts A man that would give an account to God need to observe himself narrowly and keep his heart above all keepings David that saith here I declared my ways saith elsewhere I considered my ways It is but a formal account we can give without serious consideration We must therefore keep our hearts with all diligence Prov. 4. 23. 3. There needs in many cases a serious search for instance in deep desertion when God withdraws the light of his countenance and men have not those wonted influences of grace those glimpses of favour and quicknings of spirit and enlargings of heart Psal. 77. 6. I call to remembrance my song in the night I commune with mine own heart and my spirit made diligent search When under any despair of soul trace it to its original cause wherein I have grieved the Spirit of God So Lam. 3. 40. Let us search and try our ways There needs a very distinct and serious enquiry into the state of our souls that we may deal ingenuously with God and lay open our selves before him II. The second clause And the Lord heard me Doct. After an ingenuous and open declaration of our selves to God we find audience with him So did David and so do all the Saints He was never yet wanting to his people that deal sincerely with him in prayer How doth God manifest his audience either inwardly by the Spirit or outwardly by Providence First Inwardly by his Spirit when he begets a perswasion of their acceptance with God leaves an impression of confidence upon their hearts and a quietness in looking for the thing they had asked Before they have an answer of Providence they have a perswasion of heart that their Prayer hath been accepted There 's a great deal of difference between accepting a Prayer and granting a Prayer Gods acceptance is as soon as we Pray but the thing we beg for is another thing and distinct 1 John 5. 14 15. This is the confidence that we have in him that if we ask any thing according to his Will he
a poor little hearsay Knowledg availeth not They abhor themselves when they have more intimate acquaintance none so confident as a young Professor that knoweth a few Truths but in a weak and imperfect manner the more we know indeed the more sensible we are of our ignorance how liable to this mistake and that that we dare not trust our selves for an hour 4. Because of the profit that cometh by knowledg All grace from first to last cometh in by the understanding God in the work of grace followeth the order which he hath established in Nature Reason and Judgment is to go before the will and therefore when the work of Grace is first begun in us it beginneth in the Understanding Renewed in knowledg Col. 3. 10. So the encrease of grace 2 Pet. 1. 12. Grace be multiplied unto you through the knowledg of God and of Iesus Christ our Lord. As the beginning is by light so is all the gradual progress of the spiritual life strength to bear afflictions strength in conflicts is by powerful reasons yea the perfect change that is made in us in glory is by the vision of God We shall see him as he is and shall be like him If we had more knowledg of God and his ways we should trust him more fear him more love him more Trust him Psal. 9. 10. And they that know thy name will put their trust in thee for thou Lord hast not forsaken them that seek thee If God were more known he would be better trusted 2 Tim. 1. 12. I know whom I have believed I dare trust him with my soul. More feared 3 Joh. 11. Beloved follow not that which is evil but that which is good He that doth good is of God he that doth evil hath not seen God Right thoughts of God would not let us sin so freely one Truth or other would fall upon us and give check to the temptation as feared so loved more The more explicite thoughts we have of his excellency the more are our hearts drawn out to him Joh. 4. 10. If thou knewest the gift c. Christ would not lye by as a neglected thing if he were more known in all his worth and excellency USE The first Use is to press you to get Knowledg and look upon it as a singular Grace if the Lord will give you to understand and apply the comfort and direction of his Holy Word Joh. 15. 15. Henceforth I call you not servants for the servant knoweth not what his Lord doth but I have called you friends for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you To be taught the mind of God is a greater act of friendship than if God should give a man all the treasures of the world To make himself known so as you may love him fear him trust him When we can apply this for our comfort O then cry for knowledg lift up thy voice for understanding seek her as silver and search for her as for hidden treasures Prov. 2. 3 4. Go to God and be earnest with him Lord make me to understand the way of thy precepts We can walk in the ways of sin without a Teacher but we cannot walk in the ways of God And cry lift up thy voice We are earnest for quickning and enlargement but be earnest also for understanding Now a large prayer without endeavours is nothing worth Dig in the Mines of knowledg search into the Scripture do not gather up a few scattered notions but look into the bowels Silver doth not lye in the surface of the earth but deep in the bottom of it and will cost much labour and digging to come at it If we would have any good stock of knowledg which will prevent vain thoughts carnal discourse abundance of heart-perplexing scruples and doubts and much darkness and uncomfortableness of spirit it will cost us some labour and pains The more knowledg we have the more are we established against error 2 Pet. 3. 17. Ye therefore beloved seeing ye know these things before beware lest ye also being led away with the error of the wicked fall from your own stedfastness The more you have of this divine saving knowledg the greater check upon sin Psal. 119. 11. I have hid thy word in my heart that I might not sin against thee One Truth or another will rise up in defiance of the Temptation The greater impulsion to duty the more of the Law of God the more it urgeth the conscience Prov. 6. 22. It maketh us more useful in all our Relations 1 Pet. 3. 7. Husbands Dwell with them according to knowledg c. Parents Eph. 6. 4. Fathers provoke not your children to wrath but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Friends Rom. 15. 14. And I my self also am perswaded of you my brethren that ye also are full of goodness filled with all knowledg able also to admonish one another Magistrates that they may discern Christs Interest Psal. 2. 10. Be wise now therefore O Kings be instructed ye Iudges of the earth When Solomon asked Wisdom the thing pleased the Lord. And lastly More comfortable in our selves that they may comfort and build up one another whenever they meet together USE 2. To press you to grow in knowledg None have such confidence and rejoycing in God as those that have a clear sight and understanding of his will revealed in his word Let your knowledg 1. Be more comprehensive At first our thoughts run in a narrow channel There are certain general Truths absolutely necessary to salvation as concerning our misery by sin and the sufficiency of Christ to help us but if we might rest in these why hath God given us so copious a Rule The general sort of Christians content themselves to see with others eyes get the knowledg of a few truths and look no farther why then hath God given so large a Rule Fundamentals are few believe them live well and you shall be saved This is the Religion of most This is as if a man in building should only be careful to lay a good foundation no matter for roof windows walls If a man should untile your house and tell you the foundation standeth the main butteresses are safe you would not like of it A man is bound according to his capacity and opportunity to know all Scripture the consequences of every Truth God may and doth accept of our imperfect knowledg but not when men are negligent and do not use the means To be willingly ignorant of the lesser ways of God is a sin VVe should labour to know all that God hath revealed 2. More distinct why Truths are best known in their frame and dependance as Gods works of Creation when viewed singly and apart every days work was good but when viewed alltogether in their correspondence and mutual proportion to each other were very good Gen. 1. 31. So all Truths of God take them singly are good but
the occasion of the first sin and therefore we had need be cautioned against it Consider there is a lying to God in publick and private worship In publick worship How often do you compass him about with lyes We shew love with our mouths when our heart is at a great distance from God O how odious should we be to our selves if our heart were turned inside outward in the best duty and all our thoughts were turned into words for in our worship many times we draw near to God with our mouths when our heart is at a great distance As when their bodies were in the Wilderness their hearts were in Egypt so we prattle words without sense and spiritual affection Nay in our private worship we confess sin without shame we pray as if we cared not to be heard Conscience tells us what we should pray for but our hearts do not go out in the matter and we throw away our prayers as children shoot away their arrows which is a sign we are not so hearty as we should be We give thanks but without meltings of heart Custom and natural light tells us something must be done in this kind but how hard a matter is it to draw near God with truth of heart Again Would we not be accounted better than we are who would be thought as ill as he hath cause to think of himself We storm if others but speak of us half of what we speak of our selves to God therefore all had need look to it to be kept from a way of lying And for gross lying how far are we from being willing that should be accomplished which the Lord speaks of Zeph. 3. 13. The remnant of Israel shall not do iniquity nor speak lies neither shall a deceitful tongue be found in their mouth rather we may take up Davids complaint Psal. 12. 1 2. The godly man ceaseth the faithful fail from among the children of men they speak vanity every one with his neighbour with flattering lips and with a double heart do they speak Promises Oaths Covenants all broken and therefore so many jealousies because so much lying all trust is lost among us This lying is always ill but especially in Magistrates men of publick place Prov. 17. 7. Lying lips become not a Prince So Ministers Rom. 9. 1. I say the truth in Christ I lye not 2 Cor. 11. 31. The God and Father of our Lord Iesus Christ knoweth that I lye not Among private Christians are we not too rash in our suspicions and speak worse of others than they deserve do we not take up and vent reports without search it may be out of envy at the brightness of their profession Do not unwary Expressions drop from us much talk cannot be justified Are there not rash promises we make noconscience to mind and look after Many ways may we trace our selves in this sin of lying Therefore look to the prevention of it what remedies are there against it 1. Hate it do not think it to be a venial matter Psal. 119. 163. I hate and abhor lying not only hate it nor simply I abhor it but hate and abhor to strengthen and increase the sense and make it more vehement Where the enmity is not great against the sin the matter may be compounded and taken up O but I hate and abhor it and hate it with a deadly hatred Slight hatred of a sinful course is not sufficient to guard us against it 2. Love to the Law of God if that be dear to you you will not break it upon any light occasion In the Text Grant me thy law graciously If a man prize the Laws of God and would fain have them printed in the heart he will not so easily break them 3. Remember your spiritual conflict you never give Satan so great an advantage as by falshood and guile of spirit The Devil assaults by wiles but your strength lyeth in down-right honesty Eph. 6. 11. That ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil Satans strength lies in wiles but you must beat him down in sincerity The first piece of the spiritual armour is the girdle of truth that is the grace of sincerity whereby a man is to God and men what he gives out himself to be or seems to be This is that which will give you strength and courage in sore tryals O when Satan shall accuse and challenge you for your base hypocrisie then how will you hold up your heads in the day of spiritual conflict if you have not the girdle of truth But now uprightness gives us courage strength and stands by us in the very agonies of death 4. Heedfulness and a watch upon the tongue Psal. 39. 1. I said I will take heed to my ways that I sin not with my tongue Let us speak of what we think and think of what we speak that the mind may conform it self with the nature of truth 5. Avoid the causes of lying There are three of them 1. Boasting or speaking too much of our selves When men are given to boasting whatever thing of weight is done they were privy to it their hand was in the work in contriving and prosecuting the business their counsel was for it Nothing can be acted without their knowledg and approbation This spirit of vain-glory is the Mother of vain talking therefore of a lying tongue Psal. 12. 3. Flattering lips and the tongue that speaketh proud things are joyned together 2. Flattery or desiring of ingratiating themselves with those that are great and mighty in the world when they have mens persons in admiration Psal. 12. 2. With flattering lips and with a double heart do they speak So Hosea 7. 3. They make the king glad with their lyes To please their Rulers they sooth them up with flattering applause and fawning upon them 3. Carnal fear and distrust This was that which put David to his shifts in his dangers he was apt to fail and deal a little deceitfully in time of temptation and danger We had need pray to God to be kept from all ways and counsels that are contrary to Gods word The Scripture speaks Deut. 33. 29. of Counterfeit submissions to higher powers Thine enemies shall be found lyars unto thee thou shalt tread upon their high places the meaning is shall be subdued by thee So Psal. 18. 44. Strangers shall submit themselves to me Psal. 66. 3. 81. 15. and many other places The word implieth feigned submission Obj. But are we openly to profess our mind in all things in time of danger I answer Prudent concealment may be without fault but a professed subjection should be sincere for open and free dealing doth best become Gods Children It is true we are not bound to speak all the truth at all times to every person In some cases we may conceal something Luk. 9. 21. Our Saviour straitly charged them and commanded them to tell no body that he was the Christ. 1 Sam. 16. 2. When the Lord
your selves in your father's anger when he seemeth to go cross to our prayers and hopes and gives to wicked men advantages against us Numb 12. 14. If her father had but spit in her face should she not be ashamed seven days When God doth not make good the confidence of his people rather the contrary the confidence of their enemies does as it were spit in their face then it is time to take shame to themselves and humble themselves before the Lord. SERMON XXXIV PSALM CXIX 32. I will run the way of thy Commandments when thou shalt enlarge my heart IN these words there are two parts 1. A supposition of strength or help from God When thou shalt enlarge my heart 2. A resolution of duty I will run the way of thy Commandments Where 1. observe that he resolves I will 2. The matter of the resolution the way of thy commandments 3. The manner how he would carry on this purpose intimated in the word run with all diligence and earnestness of soul. The Text will give us occasion to speak 1. Of the benefit of an enlarged heart 2. The necessary precedency of this work on God's part before there can be any serious bent or motion of heart towards God on our part 3. The subsequent resolution of the Saints to engage their hearts to live to God 4. With what earnestness alacrity and vigor of spirit this work is to be carried on I will run First Let me speak of the enlarged heart the blessing here asked of God The point from hence is Doct. Enlargement of heart is a blessing necessary for them that would keep God's Laws David is sensible of the want of it and therefore goes to God for it 1. I shall speak of the nature of this benefit 2. The necessity of it First As to the nature what this enlargement of heart is There 's a general and a particular enlargement of heart 1. The general enlargement is at regeneration or conversion to God when we are freed from the bonds of natural slavery and the curse of the Law and the power of sin to serve God cheerfully then is our heart said to be enlarged This is spoken of in Scripture Joh. 8. 36. If the son shall make you free ye shall be free indeed There are two things notable in that Scripture that this is freedom indeed and that we have it by the Son 1. That this is the truest liberty then are we free indeed How large and ample soever our condition and portion be in the world we are but slaves without this freedom As Austin said of Rome that she was Domitrix gentium captiva vitiorum the Mistriss of the Nations and a slave to Vices so vicious men are very slaves how free and large soever their condition be in the world Ioseph was sold as a bond-slave into Egypt but his Mistress that was overcome by her own lust was the true captive and Ioseph was free indeed 2. The other thing observable from this Text is That we have this liberty by Christ he purchased it for us this enlargement of heart from the captivity of sin cost dear Look as the Roman Captain said Acts 25. 28. With a great sum obtained I this freedom They were tender of the violation of this priviledg of being a Citizen of Rome a free-born Roman because it cost so dear and when the liberties of a Nation are bought with a great deal of treasure and blood no wonder that they are so dear and precious to them and that they are so willing to stand for their liberty Certainly our liberty by Christ was dearly bought One place more I shall mention Rom. 13. 2. For the law of the spirit of life in Christ Iesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death The Covenant of grace is there called the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus and the Covenant of works is called the law of sin and death To open the place The Covenant of grace that 's accompanied with the law of the spirit the Covenant of works that 's the law of the letter that only gives us the letter and the naked knowledg of our duty Lex jubet gratia juvat 't is the law of the spirit and not only so but the law of the spirit of life which is in Christ Iesus because it works from the spirit of Christ and conforms us to the life of Christ as our Original pattern Well then this law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus it makes us free This freedom though purchased by Christ yet is applied executed and accomplished by the Spirit The spirit makes us free and from what from the law of sin and death that is from the law as a Covenant of works which is therefore called a law of sin and death because it convinceth of sin and bindeth over to death it is the ministry of death to condemnation to the fallen creature Let us see what this general enlargement and freedom is from these places It consists in two things A freedom from the power and from the guilt of sin or the curse and obligation to eternal damnation The first sort of freedom from the power of sin is spoken of Rom. 6. 18. Being then made free from sin ye became the servants of righteousness There is a freedom from sin and a freedom for sin or a freedom from righteousness as it is called v. 20. When you were the servants of sin saith the Apostle you were free from righteousness To be under the dominion of sin is the greatest slavery and to be under the dominion of grace is the greatest liberty and enlargement Then is a man free from righteousness when he hath no impulsions nor inclinations of heart to that which is good when righteousness hath no command over him when he will not be held under the restraints of grace when he hath no fear to offend or care to please God But on the other side then is a man free from sin when he can thwart his lust always warring against it cutting off the provisions of the flesh when he hath no purpose and care to act his lust but it is always the bent and inclination of his heart to please God and this is our liberty and enlargement The other part of this liberty and enlargement is when we are freed from the bondage of conscience or fears of death and hell Every Covenant hath a suitable operation of the spirit attending upon it The Covenant of works hath an operation of the spirit of bondage the Covenant of grace hath an operation of the spirit of adoption I say the Covenant of works rightly thought of produceth nothing in the fallen creature but bondage or a dreadful sense of their misery it is called the spirit of bondage and every one which passeth out of that Covenant hath a feeling of it Rom. 8. 15. You have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear You had it
not a waste either God is there framing gracious operations or the Devil who worketh in the children of disobedience Ephes. 2. 2. will you give them to God to be saved or to the Devil to be damned Whos 's they are now they are for ever 5ly If you love any you give him the heart and you are wont to wish that there were windows in your bodies that they might see the sincerity of your hearts towards them Surely if you have cause to love any you have much more cause to love God No such friend as he no such benefactor as he if you consider what he hath done for us what blessings he hath bestowed internal external temporal eternal He hath given his Son the great instance of love Ioh. 3. 16. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth on him might not perish but have everlasting life His Gospel that his love might be preached to us His Spirit that not only sounded in our ears but is shed abroad in our hearts Rom. 5. 5. His Christ to save us his word to enlighten us his Spirit to guide and direct us till we come to Heaven where he will give himself to us an eternal inheritance Certainly unless void of all sense and common ingenuity thou wilt say as the Psalmist Psal. 116. 12. What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits towards me What indeed wilt thou render to him love will tell thee but lest thou shouldst miss God himself hath told thee Prov. 23. 26. My Son give me thine heart There is no need to wish for windows in thy body He searcheth the heart and trieth the reins Psal. 7. 9. The righteous God trieth the hearts and reins And 1 King 8. 39. Thou knowest the hearts of all the children of men The whole world is to him as a sea of glass He knoweth how much thou esteemest and honourest him If thou givest him the whole world and dost not give him thy heart thou dishonourest him and settest something else before him 6ly This is that all may give him if God should require costly sacrifices rivers of oyl thousands of rams then none but the rich would serve him and he would require nothing but what many Hypocrites would give him Then the poor would be ashamed and discouraged not being able to comply with the command Yea then God would not act like the true God Who accepteth not the person of Princes nor regardeth the rich more than the poor for they are all the work of his hands Job 34. 19. Say not Mica 6. 6 7 8. Wherewith shall I come before the Lord and bow my self before the High God shall I come before him with burnt-offerings with calves of a year old will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams or with ten thousands of rivers of oyl shall I give my first-born for my transgression the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul But go to God and give him thy heart this will make thy mite more acceptable than the great treasures of the wicked Luk. 21. 1 2 3 4 And he looked up and saw the rich men casting their gifts into the treasury and he saw also a certain poor widow casting in thither two mites and he said Of a truth I say unto you that this poor widow hath cast in more than they all for all these have of their abundance cast unto the offerings of God but of her penury she hath cast in all the living that she had We read in Pagan-story of one that when many rich Scholars gave gifts to Socrates every one according to his birth and fortunes a poor young man came to him and said I have nothing worthy of thee to bestow upon thee but that which I have I give and that is my self others that have given to thee have left more to themselves but I have given all that I have and have nothing left me I give thee my self The Philosopher answered Thou hast given me a gift indeed and therefore it shall be my care to return thee to thy self better than I found thee So come to God he needeth us not but 't is for our benefit we should give our hearts and selves to him He knoweth how much it is for our advantage that he should have our hearts to make them better to sanctifie and save them 2ly The whole heart Here I shall shew you 1. what it is to keep the Law with the whole heart 2. Why we must keep the Law with our whole heart 1. What it is to keep the Law with the whole heart It is taken Legally or Evangelically as a man is bound or as God will accept what is required in justice or what is accepted in mercy 1st According to the rigor of the Law The Law requireth exact conformity without the least motion to the contrary either in thought or destre a full obedience to the Law with all the powers of the whole man This is in force still as to our rule but not as to the condition of our acceptance with God This without any defect and imperfection like mans love to God in innocency since the fall is no where found but in Christ Jesus who alone is harmless and undefiled and will never thus be fulfilled by us till we come to Heaven For here all is but in part but then that which is in part shall be done away Then will there be light without darkness knowledg without ignorance faith without unbelief hope without despair love without defect and mixture of carnal inclinations All good motions without distraction Here is folly and confusion here flesh lusteth against the Spirit in the best Gal. 5. 17. They have a double principle though not a double heart 2ly In an Evangelical sense according to the moderation of the second Covenant and so God out of his love and mercy in Christ Jesus accepts of such a measure of love and obedience as answereth to the measure of Sanctification received When God sanctifieth a man he sanctifieth him as to all the parts and faculties of body and soul inlightneth the understanding with the knowledg of his will inclineth the heart to obedience circumciseth the affection filleth us with the love of God himself and holy things But being a voluntary agent he doth not this as to perfection of degrees all at once but successively and by little and little Therefore as long as we are in the world there is somewhat of ignorance in the understanding perversity in the will fleshliness and impurity in the affections flesh and spirit in every faculty like water and wine in the same cup but so as the gift of grace doth more and more prevail over the corruption of nature light upon darkness holiness upon sin and heavenliness upon our inclinations to worldly vanities As the Sun upon the shadow of the night till it groweth into perfect day Prov. 4. 18. The path of the
Alsufficient therefore his Promises are not to be distrusted his Threatnings not to be slighted there is no resisting or standing out against him in the twinkling of an eye he can tear you in pieces pluck away the guilty Soul from the embraces of the unwilling Body A spark of his Wrath makes thee a burthen to thy self So for Promises one Word of his Mouth can accomplish all the good that is contained in them And 't is observable that the respects of the Creature that are peculiarly due to one of these Attributes are sometimes in Scripture directed to another 'T is said Hos. 3. 5. They shall fear the Lord and his Goodness in the latter days and love him for his Power and Greatness and believe in him for his Wisdome Again they trust him for his Goodness love him for his Wisdome fear him for his Power all these changes are in Scripture 2. Why God is best remembred when his Name is studied the Reason is because the study of his Name doth increase those three fundamental radical Graces before-mentioned 1. The studying of his Name increaseth our Love Thy Name is as an ointment poured forth therefore the Virgins love thee Cant. 1. 3. Ointment kept close in the Box doth not diffuse its savour but Ointment poured forth is full of fragrancy and reviving it perfumeth the whole house Iohn 12. 3. The house was filled with the odour of the Ointment So when the Name of God is not considered we are not comforted and strengthened and quickened but pour it forth take it abroad in your serious thoughts and believing Meditations and that doth attract and draw hearts to him When we consider the Mercy Grace Power Wisdome Truth and Justice of God these affect all those that have any spiritual discerning This is the way to draw Esteem from carnal Hearts He hath Authority to make Laws for he is the Wise God Power to back this Authority for he is the Almighty Creatour who can frown thee into nothing but yet he is good and gracious ready to receive you and pardon and do you good though you have rebelled against him to pour out this Name is our Duty and then poor Creatures will be prevailed with it is our Duty to do it in the discoveries of the Gospel your Duty to ponder upon it in your private Meditations The Wisedom of God in the Word sheweth your Duty his Power what need you have to bind it on your hearts and your case is not without hope for you have to do with a good God there is no Mercy to such as fear not his powerfull Justice and no Justice for such as flee from it to his Mercy see how God poureth out his Name Exod. 34. 5 6 7. And the Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there and proclaimed the Name of the Lord and the Lord passed by before him and proclaimed the Lord the Lord God mercifull and gracious long-suffering and abundant in Goodness and Truth keeping mercy for thousands forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin and that will by no means clear the guilty visiting the iniquitie of the Fathers upon the Children and upon the Children's Children unto the third and fourth generation 2. The studying of God's Name encreaseth our Faith or Trust Psal. 9. 10. They that know thy Name will put their Trust in thee God is first known and then trusted and then served If God were known more he would be more trusted and if he were more trusted we would not be so double-minded and unstable in the profession and practice of Godliness we little study God and because we study his Name so little our Faith is weak and therefore we are so uncertain in our Conversations It is well when all our Comfort and Duty is immediately fetcht out of the Name of God or his Nature considered by us 3. The studying of God's Name encreaseth our Reverence and Fear Psal. 111. 9. Holy and reverend is thy Name Psal. 86. 11. Unite my heart to the fear of thy Name The more you study the nature of God the more awfull serious humble watchfull will you grow Thus you see serious and becoming thoughts of God do much encrease our Faith Fear and Love The Use is to exhort you more 1. To study the Name of God and to dwell upon the Meditations of the Almighty and to possess your mind with him till no place be left for sin or vanity 1. The Name of his Being God is not onely the best of Beings but properly that which is because he is a Self-being that gave Being to all things else and from everlasting to everlasting we are but as it were of yesterday and our Being is from him and our Life in his hands we cannot live an hour without him nor fetch a breath without him nor think a thought nor speak a word nor stir a hand or foot without him There is a continual providential influence and supportation as the beams of the Sun vanish as soon as the Sun is clouded so do we fail when God suspends his influence A Watch goeth of its self a Mill of its self when the Workman taketh off his hand from them it is not so with us and God for Acts 17. 28. In him we live move and have our being What Paul said of spiritual Life Gal. 2. 20. is true also of Life natural I am yet not I but God is all in all He is in us and liveth in us or we could not subsist for a moment we need not seek God without in the Workmanship of Heaven and Earth for we have God within our selves and may feel him and find him in our own Life and Motion as the Child in the Womb liveth by the Life of the Mother before it is quickned and liveth apart by a Life and Soul of its own or as a Pipe sounds by the blowing of the Musician if he stop his breath it is altogether silent so do we live and breath in God and all the tuneable variety of our Motions cometh from his breathing in us Now if God be so near us shall we not take notice of his presence and carry our selves accordingly shall we offend him and affront him to his face and displease Him without whom we cannot live But alas how seldom do we reflect upon this how is it that we move and think not with wonder of the first Mover in whom we move how is it that we live and persevere in Being and do not consider of this Fountain and Self-being who gave our Life to us and still continues it Oh the negligence of many Souls professing the knowledge of God and Godliness we speak walk eat and drink and go about all our business as if we had a Self-being and independent never thinking of that All-present and quickening Spirit that acts us moveth in us speaketh in us maketh us to walk eat drink and do all the functions of Nature Like the barbarous people who
it to whom he pleaseth We were at first endowed by him with a reasonable Soul and Faculty of Understanding Iohn 1. 4. In him was life and this life was the light of man All Life is of God especially that Life which is Light The Reasonable Soul and the natural Faculty of Understanding cometh from him and if it be disordered as it is by Sin it must be by him restored and rectified it is all God's gift Now Man is fallen from that Light of Life wherein he was created his Maker must be his Mender he must goe to the Father of Lights to have his Light cleared Iames 1. 17. and his Understanding freed from those mistakes and errours wherewith it was obscured All Knowledge is from God much more saving Grace or a sound Knowledge of the Mysteries of the Gospel Many Scriptures speak to this Iob 32. 8. There is a Spirit in man and the Inspiration of the Almighty giveth understanding Though the Dyal be right set yet it sheweth not the time of the day except the Sun shineth so the Spirit of man will grope and fumble in the clearest Cases without a divine Irradiation God inlighteneth the Mind directeth the Judgment giveth Understanding what to doe or say So he challengeth it as his Prerogative Iob 38. 26. Who hath put wisdome into the inward parts or given understanding unto the heart The exercise of the outward Senses is from God who gives the seeing Eye the hearing Ear much more the right exercise of the internal Faculties an understanding Heart is much more from the Lord Prov. 2. 6. The Lord giveth wisedom out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding Dan. 2. 21. He giveth wisdome to the wise and knowledge to them that know understanding Certainly all true Wisdome is from above Iames 3. 17. The wisdome that is from above is first pure c. he distinguisheth there between the Wisdome that is not from above and that which is from above Man hath so much Wisdome yet left as to cater for the Body and the concernments of the bodily Life called thine own wisdome Prov. 23. 4. therefore he saith verse 15. This Wisdome descendeth not from above but is earthly sensual devilish but for Wisdome that concerneth the other World and our everlasting concernments that is of God that 's from above The Wisdome that is exercised in pure peaceable fruitfull self-denying Obedience all that have any of this Wisdome should acknowledg God and all that would have it should depend upon him and run to the Fountain where enough is to be had Man's Wit is but borrowed and he holdeth it of God Vitia etiam sine magistro discuntur he needeth no Teacher in what is evil and carnal but in what is holy and spiritual he needeth it 2. It is a singular favour to them on whom God bestoweth this heavenly wisdom and so puts a difference between them and others It is a greater sign of friendship and respect to them than if God had given them all the world Mark 13. 11. To you it is given to know the mysteries of the Kingdom of God but to others it is not given This is no common benefit but a favour which God reserveth for his peculiar people so Iohn 15. 15. I have called you friends for all things which I have heard of my Father I have made known to you That is the highest argument of friendship not to give you wealth and honour and greatness but to give you an inlightened mind and a renewed heart God may give honour and greatness and a worldly estate in judgment as Beasts fatted for destruction may be put into large pastures but he doth not teach his Statutes in Judgment it is a favour though he useth a sharper discipline in teaching Psalm 44. 12. Blessed is the man whom thou chastenest and teachest him out of thy Law If God will teach his Child not onely by the Word but by the Rod and useth a sharp discipline to instruct in the lesson of Christianity it is a greater favour than if God did let him alone and suffer him to perish with the wicked in his wrath The prosperity of wicked men is so far from being a felicity to them that it is rather the greatest Judgment and to be punished and rebuked by God for all that we do amiss and thereby to be reduced to the seâ—…se and practice of our Duty is indeed the greatest favour and mercy of God and so the most valuable felicity and evidence of Gods tender care over us so Prov. 3. 31 32. Envy not the oppressor and choose none of his ways for the froward is an abomination to the Lord and his secret is with the righteous You are depressed and kept bare and low but your adversaries flourish and grow insolent you cannot therefore say God hateth you or God loveth them if the Lord hath given you the saving knowledge of himself and his Christ and onely given them worldly happiness it is a great token of his love to you and hatred to them that you need not envy them for you are dignifyed with the higher priviledge 3. Prayer is the appointed means to obtain it There are other means by which God conveyeth this heavenly wisdom as by study and search dig for wisdom as for silver and for understanding as hid treasures Prov. 2. 4. Dig in the mines of Knowledg Attend upon the word which is able to make us wise unto Salvation Mark 4. 24. Take heed what or how ye hear with what measure ye mete it shall be measured to you and unto you that hear shall more be given But all are sanctified by Prayer Prov. 2. 3. Cry for knowledge and lift up thy voice for understanding Bene orasse est bene studuisse saith Luther so to pray well is to hear aright God giveth understanding by the ministry of the Word but he will be sought unto and acknowledged in the gift otherwise we make an Idol of our own understanding Prov. 3. 5. Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not upon thine own understanding in all thy wayes acknowledge him and he shall direct thy paths Let us not make a God of our own wisdom do not seek it in the means without Prayer to the Lord let not us study without Prayer nor you hear without Prayer nor go about any business in your general and particular callings without Prayer II. Prop. This benefit cannot be too often nor too sufficiently asked of God 1. Because of our want we never know so much but we may know more of God's mind and know it better and to better purpose To know things as we ought to know them is the great gift 1 Cor. 8. 2. If any man thinketh that he knoweth any thing he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know that we may be more sanctified more prudent and orderly in governing our hearts and lives that we may know things seasonably when they concern us in any
special business and temptation Prov. 28. 26. He that trusteth in his own heart is a fool but he that walketh wisely shall be delivered that is he that followeth his own conceit soon falleth into a snare he that maketh his Bosome his Oracle and his own Wit his Counsel thinks himself wise enough without daily seeking to God to order his own business never succeedeth well but plungeth himself into manifold inconveniencies 2. From Gods manner of giving he is not weary and tyred with constant supplicants Iames 1. 5. If any man lack wisdom let him ask of God who giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not and it shall be given him The Throne of Grace lyeth always open the oftner we frequent it the more welcome we frown upon one that often troubleth us with his suits but it is not so with God we may beg and beg again 3. The value of the benefit it self Saving knowledg or the light of the spirit keepeth alive the work of grace in our hearts Habitual graces will soon wither and decay without a continual influence the increase of sanctification cometh into the Soul by the increase of saving knowledg 2 Pet. 1. 2. Grace be multiplied unto you through the knowledg of God and of Iesus Christ our Lord. The more we grow thriving in knowledg the more we grow in grace and the heart and life is more engaged As we learn somewhat more of God in Christ our awe and love to him is increased Eph. 4. 20 21. Ye have not so learned Christ if so be that you have heard him and been taught of him as the truth is in Iesus that is if ye are taught and instructed by Christ himself in the Truth It is not every sort of hearing Christ or knowledg which will do us good Many learn him and know him who abuse that knowledg which they have of him but if he effectually teach us by his spirit then our knowledg is practical and operative we will practise what we know be careful to please God in all things 4. From the temper of a gracious heart a tast of this knowledg will make us desire a further supply that we may be taught more and the Soul may be more sanctified therefore doth David deal with God for the increase of saving knowledg We are contented with a little tast of heavenly Doctrine but holy men are not so shew me thy mind let me see thy Glory Hos. 6. 3. then shall we know if we follow on to know the Lord. They are for growth as well as truth they experimentally know how good God is and the more they know him the more they see their Ignorance and that there is more behind to be known of him Before they had but a flying report of him now they are acquainted with him and have a nearer inspection into his ways and this is but little in comparison of what they desire We are bidden 2 Pet. 3. 18. Tâ—… grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Iesus Christ. Present measures do not satisfie them they must grow in knowledg as grow in grace more love to Christ more delight in his ways III. Prop. In asking any spiritual gift we are encouraged by the bounty and mercy of God David signifieth both 1. His bounty or benignity or that free inclination which is in God to do good to his Creatures 2. His mercy respects the Creature as affected with any misery Mercy properly is a proneness to succour and relieve a man in misery notwithstanding sin Now the larger thoughts of mercy the more hope partly because we have no plea of merit and therefore mercy is the Fountain of all the good which cometh to us from God We cannot come to him as a Debtor and therefore we must come to him as a free Benefactor Wherewith can we oblige God We have nothing to give to him but what is his own already and was first received from him all things come of thee and of thine own have we given thee 1 Chron. 29. 14. We pay the great Governour of the World out of his own Exchequer The Apostle maketh the challenge Rom. 11. 35. Who hath given him first and it shall be recompensed to him The Sun oweth nothing to the Beam but the Beam all to the Sun the Fountain oweth nothing to the Stream but the Stream hath all from the Fountain so we have all from God can bring nothing to him which was not his before and came from him Partly because there is a contrary Merit an ill-deserving upon us for which he might deny us any farther Mercies Psalm 25. 8. Good and upright is the Lord and therefore he will teach sinners in the way If the Sinner be weary of his wandring and would be directed of the Lord for the time to come God is upright he will not mislead us and he is good will readily lead us in a right Path. Sin shall not obstruct our Mercies and therefore must not keep the penitent supplicant back from confidence to be heard in his Prayer when he would be directed in the ready way to Happiness You would fain be reduced to a good Life after all your straying humbly lay your selves at God's feet 1 Kings 20. 31. We have heard that the Kings of the house of Israel are mercifull Kings let us I pray thee put sackcloath on our Loins and ropes upon our Heads and go out to the King of Israel peradventure he will save thy life If God were most tenacious we have cause to beat his Ears continually with our Suits and Supplications such is our want but he is good and ready to guide poor Creatures nay he is mercifull and former Sins shall be no obstruction to us if at length we are willing to return to our Duty IV. Prop. The universal Experience of the World possesseth all mens minds with this apprehension that God is a mercifull God The Earth O Lord is full of thy Mercy the World and every thing therein sets forth his Goodness to us The same is said in other places Psalm 33. 5. The Earth is full of the goodness of the Lord. If Earth what is Heaven Psalm 145. 9. His tender Mercy is over all his works 1. Let us see that every Creature is a Monument and Witness of God's Mercy and Goodness things animate and inanimate the Heavens and Earth and all things contained therein declare that there is a powerfull wise and good God There is no part of the World that we can set our Eyes upon but it speaketh Praise to God and the thoughts of his Bounty to the Creatures especially to Man for all things were either subjected to Man's dominion or created for his use and benefit If we look to the Heavens all serveth for the use and benefit of Mankind Psalm 8. 3 4. When I consider thy Heavens the work of thy fingers the Moon and the Stars which thou hast ordained What is man that thou
perswasions but when our hearts are fixed upon these holy Purposes then all contrary solicitations and oppositions will not break us or divert us Satan hath small hopes to seduce or mislead a resolved Christian loose and uningaged men lie open to him and are ready to be entertained and imployed by any new Master 3. Without the directing Act of Judgment how easily shall we miscarry and make Religion a burthen to our selves or else a scorn to the World Want of Judgment causeth different effects not onely in divers but in the same person sometimes a superstitious scrupulousness at other times a prophane negligence sometimes make conscience of all things then of nothing as the one weareth off the other succeedeth as the Devil cast the Lunatick in the Gospel sometimes into the water sometimes into the fire either fearfull of Sin in every thing they doe or bold to run into all Sin without fear Whereas a Truth judiciously understood would prevent either extream So again for want of Judgment sometimes men are transported by a fiery and indiscreet Zeal at other times settle in a cold indifferency and all things come alike to them the way to prevent both is to resolve upon evidence 1 Thess. 5. 21. Prove all things hold fast that which is good Certainly the clearer our Judgment is the more stedfast is our Faith the more vehement is our Love the more sound our Joy the more constant our Hope the more calm our Patience the more earnest our Pursuit of true Happiness otherwise we shall never carry it evenly between vain Presumption and feigned Reverence between legal Fear and rash Hopes uncomely Dejections and a loose disregard of God Wisdome is the Faculty by which we apply that Knowledge we have unto the end why we should have it 2. It makes us troublesome to others by preposterous carriage rash censuring needless intermedling Phil. 1. 9 10. And this I pray that your Love may abound yet more and more in Knowledge and in all Iudgment That ye may approve things that are excellent that ye may be sincere and without offence till the day of Christ our Corruptions will otherwise break forth to the offence of others An injudicious Christian increaseth the Reproaches of the World as if the Servants of God were the troublers of Israel by unseasonable Reproofs mistiming of Duties medling with that which no ways appertaineth to him All lawfull things are not fit at all times nor in all places nor to be done by all Persons Much folly indiscretion and rashness remaineth in the best whereby they dishonour God and bring Religion into contempt 3. They trouble the Church of God it hath suffered not onely from the Persecutions of Enemies but from the folly rashness and indiscretion of its Friends There are different degrees of Light some Babes some Young men some grown Persons in Christ Iesus 1 Iohn 2. 13. I write unto you Fathers because ye have known him that is from the beginning I write unto you Young men because ye have overcome the wicked one I write unto you little Children because ye have known the Father Now Children have their Fancies and Young men their Passions and Old men their Humours When the one would prescribe to the other they hurry all things into Confusion the Injudicious generally seek to carry it and would govern the World In Young ones there are great Affections but little Knowledge and Judgment they have a great Zeal but little Prudence to moderate it and when this is joyned with Perverseness and Contumacy it is not easy to be said how much evil it bringeth to the Church of God as a fiery Horse routeth the Troop and bringeth disorder into the Army The Devil loveth to draw things into extreams to set Gift against Gift Prudence against Zeal the Youth of Christianity against Age and so to confound all things and so to subvert the Kingdom of Christ by that comely vanity which is the beauty of it In the general all overdoing in Religion is undoing The Use is Let all this press us to seek this Benefit of good Judgment and Knowledge To this end 1. Consider the value and necessity of it without it we cannot regularly comfort our selves in the Promises but it will breed a carelesness and neglect of our Duty nor fulfil the Commandments of God but it will breed in us a self-confidence and disvaluing of the Grace of God nor reflect upon our Sins but we shall be swallowed up of immoderate sorrow nor suffer for the Truth but we shall run into indiscrect reasoning and oppositions that will trouble all and it may be subvert the Interest of Religion in the World or else grow into a loose uncertainty leaping from one Opinion into another This uncertainty cometh not so much or not altogether from vile Affection as want of information in Religion professing without Light and Evidence having more of Affection than Principles There is a twofold Injudiciousness Total or Partial 1. Total when men are given up 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into a reprobate sense or an injudicious Mind Rom. 1. 28. when utterly uncapable of heavenly Doctrine or discerning the things of the Spirit This is one of God's heaviest Judgments that is not the case of any of you I hope 2. Partial and that is in us all alas we are ignorant of many things which we should know at least we have not that discretion and prudence which is necessary for directing our Faith tempering our Zeal ordering and regulating our Practice which is necessary to avoid evil to doe good or to doe good well Or if we have Light we have no Sense or Tast. Many never felt the bitterness of Sin to purpose or sweetness of Righteousness therefore we have need to cry to God Lord give me good Tast and Knowledge 2. If you would have it you must ask it of God We can have no sound Knowledge till God teach it us By Nature we are all blind ignorant vain after Grace received though our Ignorance be helped it is not altogether cured you must still fetch it from Heaven by strong hand Without his Spirit we cannot discern spiritual things 1 Cor. 2. 14. The natural man receiveth not the things of the spirit of God for they are foolishness unto him neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned that is chiefly the main things of the Gospel and universally all things so far as Conscience and Obedience to God is concerned in them It is the Unction must teach us all things 1 Iohn 2. 20. But ye have an Unction from the holy One and ye know all things the things of God must be seen in the light of his own Spirit The Spirit of God first giveth us the desire of these things and then satisfieth us with them it is the Spirit of God purifieth this desire that it may be holy as having an holy end that we may avoid whatever is displeasing to God and doe whatever
better in its self There was reason for his esteem and choice Many will say 't is better in its self but David saith 't is better to me Let us explain these Circumstances as they are laid 1. The things compared 1. On the one side there is the Law of God's Mouth 't is God's own Word and we should be as sure of it as if we had heard him utter it and pronounce it with his own Mouth or had received it immediately by Oracle from him And indeed that is one way to raise this esteem 1 Thess. 2. 13. Receiving it not as the word of men but as it is in truth the word of God which worketh effectually in you that believe In the Word we must consider two things the Authority of it and the Ministry of it if we consider the Authority of it so it cometh from God's Mouth if we consider the Ministry of it so it cometh by Man's Mouth for he speaketh to us by Men 2 Pet. 1. 21. Holy men spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost If we look to the Ministry onely and not to the Authority we are in danger to slight it certainly shall not profit by it Many doe so as Samuel thought Eli called him when it was the Lord 1 Sam. 3. 7 8. but when we consider who is the Authour of it then it calleth for our reverence and regard 2. On the other side thousands of gold and silver Where Wealth is set out 1. By the species and kind of it Gold and Silver Gold for hoarding and portage Silver for present commerce 2. The quantity thousands that is thousands of pieces as that addition is used Psalm 68. 30. They shall submit themselves with pieces of silver or Talents as the Chaldee Paraphrase expoundeth it Money answereth all things Eccles. 10. 19. it can command all things in the World as the great Instrument of Commerce 2. The value and preference of the one above the other 't is better and 't is better to me 'T is better in its self that noteth the intrinsick worth of the Word 't is better to me that implieth his own esteem and choice To say in the general onely 't is better implieth but a speculative Approbation which may be in carnal Men Rom. 2. 18. And approvest the things that are more excellent but to say 't is better to me implieth a practical Esteem which is proper onely to the Regenerate 'T is more dear precious and sweet to them than the greatest Treasure Could we have such an holy Affection to the Word and say also to me and to me we should thrive more in a course of Godliness For a man is carried on powerfully by his Choice and Esteem his Actions are governed and determined by it Doctr. The Word of God is dearer to a gracious heart than all the Riches in the World Let me bring Proofs Psalm 19. 10. More to be desired are they than gold yea than much fine gold So speaking of spiritual Wisdome which is onely to be had by the Word of God he saith Prov. 3. 14. That the Merchandise thereof is better than the Merchandise of silver and the gain thereof than fine gold So Prov. 8. 11. For Wisdome is better than Rubies and all the things which are to be desired are not to be compared with it These Expressions are frequently used because the greatest part of Mankind is miserably bewitched with the desire of Riches but God's Children are otherwise affected they have a better Treasure Let me prove two things 1. That the Word of God and the benefit that we get by it is better than thousands of Gold and Silver 2. That the Children of God do so esteem it Both must be proved the one to shew the worth and excellency of the Word the other to shew the gracious Disposition of the hearts of God's Children There is no question but that if these things were well weighed the Law of God's Mouth and thousands of Gold and Silver we should find there is a great inequality between them but all men have not a judgment to choose that which is most worthy Many take glass Beads for Jewels and prefer Toyes and Trifles before a solid Good Gold and Silver draw the Hearts of all men to them and their Affections blind their Judgment and then though the Weights be equal if the Ballances be not equal wrong will be done We do not weigh things with an equal Ballance but consider them with a prejudiced Mind and an Heart biassed and prepossessed with worldly Inclinations I. First then for the things themselves surely Gold and Silver which is digged out of the bowels of the Earth is not worthy to be compared with the Law that cometh out of the Mouth of God if you compare the Nature Use and Duration of these Benefits that you have by the one and the other you will see a vast difference 1. The Nature the Notion of Riches is abundance of valuable things Now there are true Riches and counterfeit Riches which have but the resemblance and shew The true Riches is spoken of Luke 16. 11. and is opposed to that Mammon and Pelf which the World doateth upon Grace giveth us the true Riches and Wealth 'T is good to state what are the true Riches and the false The more abundance of truely valuable Things a man hath the more he hath of true Riches a Child counteth himself rich when he hath a great many Pins and Points and Cherry-stones for those suit his childish Age and Fancy A worldly Man counteth himself rich when he hath Gold and Silver in great store by him or Lands and Heritages or Bills and Bonds but a Child of God counteth himself rich when he hath God for his Portion Christ to his Redeemer and the Spirit for his Guide Sanctifier and Comforter which is as much above a carnal Man's Estate in the World as a carnal Man's Estate is above a Child's Toyes and Trifles yea infinitely more Well then surely the Word of God will make us rich because it revealeth God to be our God according to our Necessity and Capacity Psalm 16. 5 6. The Lord is my Portion I have a goodly Heritage and it revealeth unsearchable Riches of Grace in Christ Eph. 2. 7. Eph. 3. 8. pardon of Sins and Life eternal They that have Christ want nothing but are compleatly happy So for the Spirit what are all the Riches of the World to those Treasures of Knowledge Comfort and Holiness which we have by the Spirit What is in one Evangelist He will give his holy Spirit to them that ask him Luke 11. 13. is in another Matth. 7. 11. He will give good things to them that ask him The Spirit is instead of all good things so that the Word is able to enrich a man more than all the Wealth of the World can It giveth us abundance and abundance of better things so that a man is not absolutely poor that wants Gold
Life 1 Pet. 1. 23. He hath begotten us not by corruptible but incorruptible Seed c. Iames 1. 18. He hath begotten us by the word of Truth 2 Pet. 1. 4. To us are given great and precious Promises that we might be made partakers of the divine Nature John 17. 17. Sanctify them through thy Truth thy Word is Truth All this is said of the Word 't is the means to sanctify us the immortal Seed the beginning of the New life the divine Nature to make us live after a God-like manner therefore 't is better than thousands of gold and silver A Child of God findeth a greater Treasure in one Chapter of the Bible than worldly Men in all their Lands and Honours and large Revenues A poor Christian meeteth with more true Gain in a Sermon than others can in their Trades while they live God begetteth him at first by the Word of Truth and giveth him there the supply of the Spirit therefore be swift to hear much in reading and meditation day and night Oh there is the true Treasure the Pearl of price there their Souls become acquainted with God 2. It directeth us and keepeth us from being carried away with every deceit of Sin Psalm 119. 105. Thy word is a light unto my path and a lamp unto my feet Here are Directions for all Cases here is a general Direction 't is a light to our path and sheweth us what to doe in particular Actions 't is a lamp to our feet So 133 verse Order my steps in thy word and let no iniquity have dominion over me 'T is the Word prevents the reign of any one Sin To have a sure Rule to walk by in the midst of so many Snares and Temptations is a greater favour than to injoy the greatest affluence of worldly Felicity 3. It supporteth us in all our Afflictions and Extremities All the Wealth in the World composed and put together cannot yield us that true Contentment and Satisfaction which the Word of God doth to the obedient Soul Wealth cannot allay a grieved Mind nor appease a wounded Conscience The Word directeth us where we may find rest for our Souls Ier. 6. 16 Goe ask for the good old way and you shall find rest for your Souls We lose our selves in a maze of Uncertainties till we come to the Word of God Mat. 11. 28. Come unto me all you that are weary and heavy laden and you shall find rest for your Souls here is ease for the great wound and maim of Nature The great maim of Nature is Sin now where shall we have a Plaister for this Sore but onely in the Word of God So for particular Afflictions Rom. 15. 4. That ye through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope Comfort is the strengthening of the Mind or the fortifying the Mind when 't is vexed and weakened with doubts fears and sorrows I had fainted in my Affliction unless thy word had quickened me Psalm 119. 50. The Comforts of the World appear and vanish in a moment cannot firmly stay and revive the Heart every blast of Temptation scattereth them Philosophy and natural Reason cannot give us true ground of Comfort that was it they aimed at how to fortify the Soul and keep it quiet notwithstanding Troubles in the Flesh but as they never understood the true ground of Misery which is Sin so neither the true ground of Comfort which is Christ. That which Man offereth cannot come with such power and authority upon the Conscience as that which God offereth and bare Reason cannot have such an efficacy as divine Testimony and the Law of God's Mouth This Moonlight rotteth before it ripeneth Fruits but the Word acquainteth us with Christ who is the Foundation of Comfort with the Spirit who is the efficient cause of Comfort with the promise of Heaven which is the true matter of Comfort with Faith the great Instrument to receive it 3. Let us look to the Duration there is a vanity and uncertainty in all these outward things they soon take the wing and leave us in sorrow If they continue with us till death then they have done all their work Wealth may bring you to the Grave but it can stead you no farther then Wealth is gone but Horrour doth continue Luke 16. 24. Son in thy life time thou enjoyedst thy good things these good things are onely commensurate with Life Sometimes they do not last so long but when we must leave the World and lanch out to those unknown Regions Iob 27. 8. how miserable shall we be Worldly Comforts will fail us when we have most need of them as Ionah's Gourd when the Sun scorched him So in the hour of Death what will Bags of Gold doe then but now on the other side Wisdome is better than Gold and Silver because with her are durable Riches and Righteousness Prov. 8. 18 19. therefore my fruit is better than gold yea than fine gold and my revenue than choise silver If a man would labour for any thing labour for that which is Eternal Iohn 6. 27. No Treasure can be compared to eternal Life and this the Word assureth us of II. Let us now come to examine why the Children of God value it so 1. Because they are enlightned by the Spirit when others have their Eyes dazzled with an external splendour and their Judgment is corrupted by their Senses 'T is not Ignorance undoes the World so much as want of spiritual Prudence spiritual and heavenly Things can onely be seen in the light of the Spirit without which we can neither discern the truth or worth of them in order to choice 1 Cor. 2. 14. The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit and therefore till we have this illuminating and sanctifying Light of the Spirit we shall not make a good Choise for our selves Eph. 1. 17 18. The Apostle prayeth That the Lord would give you the spirit of Wisdome and Revelation The eyes of your Understanding being inlightened that ye may know what is the hope of his Calling and the riches of the glory of his Inheritance in the Saints That saving Knowledge of divine Mysteries which causeth us to prefer and choose them above other things comes from the spirit of Wisdome and Revelation otherwise in seeing we see not There is a perfect contradiction many times between speculative and practical Knowledge the common Wisdome and Knowledge of divine Mysteries is a Gift that cometh from the Spirit much more this spiritual discerning 2. They are affected with their true Necessities Our real Necessities are the Necessities of the Soul bodily wants are more urging and pressing upon us but these are more dangerous therefore Gold and Silver which supplieth our bodily Necessities is not so welcome to them as the Law of God's Mouth which provideth a remedy for their Soul defects How to be justified how sanctified is more than what shall we eat and drink and wherewith shall we be cloathed
usually Soul-necessities are overlooked We regard them not or conceit we are well already Rev. 3. 17. Thou thoughtest thou wast rich and increased with goods and hadst need of nothing and then we have no relish for the offered Remedy The Word of God is the offered Remedy to repair our collapsed State The Gospel is not onely true but worthy to be imbrac'd 1 Tim. 1. 15. but who will imbrace it but the sensible Sinner for 't is offered as a Remedy to the Sick and Deliverance to the Captive 't is not enough to see the Excellency of things but we must see our Necessity of them There are two hinderances that prejudice our Salvation Either the Necessity and Excellency of the Gospel is not considered or the Truth and Reality of it is not believed 3. They measure all things with respect not to this World but the World to come 'T is an high point of Religion to doe all things and regard all things for eternal Ends 2 Cor. 4. 18. Looking not to things seen that are temporal but to the things which are not seen which are eternal Making this our scope and doing all to this end Gold and Silver are the most valuable things in the World what cannot Gold and Silver buy in this World but there is another World and Believers look to things unseen Within a while it will not be a pin to choose whether we have injoyed much or little of this World 's good things but much will lie upon this whether we have obeyed God and glorified God and accepted of Christ. The use of Gold and Silver ceaseth in the World to come these things are not currant in Canaan nor accounted of in our heavenly Country therefore Money should be a vile thing instead of Grace we can carry away none of these things with us when we die Eccles. 5. 15. And surely that which hath no power to free us from Death to comfort us in Death or goe with us into another World after Death is no Happiness or solid Tranquillity 4. They have had trial and experience of the Word what a Comfort and Support it hath been to them 1 Pet. 2. 2 3. As new-born babes desire the sincere milk of the word that ye may grow thereby If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious There is an Appetite followeth the New nature and makes us desire spiritual Food Phil. 1. 9 10. And this I pray that ye may abound in all knowledge and in all Iudgment That we may approve the things that are excellent When the Spirit giveth us a tast of the goodness of those things offered in the Word of God a tast of divine Truth in our Souls when we find these Comforts verified in us then we come to approve the things that are Excellent above all other things Psalm 119. 11. Thy word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against thee We never know the worth of the Word till we come to make trial of it by Practice and Experience The pleasure of the Word we find in practice and the comfort and support of it in deep Afflictions 't is not so with the World try it and loath it 't is more in fancy than fruition because the Imperfections which formerly lay hid are discovered but the more intimately acquainted with the Word of God the more we prize it we see there is more to be gained there than in all the World besides Use 1. Is to reprove and disprove those that prefer Gold and Silver before the Word of God this is done by four sorts 1. This is grossly done by those that revolt from the profession of the Truth for the World's sake 2 Tim. 4. 10. Demas hath forsaken us and embrac'd the present world that betray the cause of Religion as Iudas sold his Master for thirty pieces of Silver or by those who will transgress for a small hire the Devil needeth not offer great things to them when they will accept of less with thanks for two pence or three pence gain will profane the Sabbath or wrong their Neighbour Is the Law of God's Mouth dearer to them than Gold and Silver surely no they may flatter themselves with love to the Word but when they can violate it for a Trifle for a pair of Shoos 't is a sign that a little gain gotten by iniquity of Traffick is sweeter to them than all the Comforts of the Promise 2. 'T is done by them that will not forsake any thing for the Word's sake but when they are put upon an apparant Trial here is Gold and Silver and there the Law of God's Mouth what will you doe obey God or comply with your Interests you shew your Love by leaving the one rather than the other as Moses counted the reproach of Christ better treasure than the riches of Egypt Heb. 11. 26. Christ's worst is better than the World 's best The Thessalonians shewed their Love when they received the Word in much Affliction but when you decline Duty and are loth to hazzard your Interests 't is evident what you prefer To some this may be a daily Temptation If I should be conscionable in my Calling I should be poor keep touch and honesty in all things it would turn to my loss How many are discouraged from the Ways of God and discharging a good Conscience by Inconveniency 3. This is also in part done by them who turn back upon the Word and Ordinances of God for gains sake and fix their residence there where they can neither enjoy God nor his People nor the Comfort of his Ordinances as Merchants who remove for Traffick and settle their abode there where the true Religion is not professed it may be suppressed with extremity of rigour especially when they send Youth thither and Novices and Persons not grounded in the Faith This is like turning a Child loose among a company of contagious Persons or setting an empty Pitcher to crack before the fire Commerce and Traffick with Infidels or Persons of a false Religion is lawfull but to make our constant Residence where there is no Liberty for reading and hearing the Word of God no Liberty of Worship and Ordinances cannot be excused from Sin You make Religion to stoop to Gain I will not urge so high and heroical an Instance as Moses Heb. 11. 25. Choosing rather to suffer afflictions with the people of God than injoy the pleasures of sin for a season but of a Iew since the time of their Degeneration I have once and again read of one Rabbi Ioseph who being allured with the hope and call to a place of great gain to teach Hebrew where there was no Synagogue is said to have brought forth this Scripture for his Answer and Excuse The Law of thy Mouth is better to me than thousands of gold and silver let us Christians remember it and consider the pertinency of it 4. 'T is more refinedly done by them who by earthly
Law but the doctrine of the Gospel As if he had said Stick to that Doctrine where you have been quickned comforted revived and your hearts setled for God hath owned that doctrine He appeals to their own conscience and to their own known experience that they should not quit the doctrine of Faith but prize and keep close to it for surely that which hath been a means of begetting grace in our souls that should be highly prized by us If God hath wrought grace and any comfort and peace stick there and own God there and be not easily moved from thence Another Apostle reasons Iam. 1. 18 19. God hath begotten us by the word of truth wherefore be swift to hear that is O! do not neglect hearing take heed of forsaking or neglecting the Word for then you go against your own known experience you know here you had your life quickning comfort strength and will you be turned off from this for many times a Seducer may turn off a Believer from the Word which hath given him his first knowledge of Christ. There are three Causes which carry Saints to the Word and other Ordinances viz. Necessity Natural Appetite and inward Inclination and Experience Necessity they cannot live without the Word Natural Appetite and inward Inclination they have hearts suited to this work the Spirit which wrought in the heart hath put a nature in them sutable to the work And Experience they have found benefit by it These are the three grand Causes of respect to the Word and they are all implied or exprest in that 1 Pet. 2. 2. As new born Babes desire the sincere milk of the Word there 's natural appetite for the Word we have them come as new born Babes and there 's necessity you cannot live nor keep nor increase what you have unless you keep to the Word and there 's Experience if so be you have tasted you have had powerful impressions and quicknings by this Word We should engage our hearts upon experience the comfort life and light that we have had by the Word of God 3d Reason Our own spiritual Estate will sooner be discerned by these Experiences the comfort and quickning received from the Word in the way of duty for experience worketh hope Rom. 5. 4. If your experiences be observed and regarded this works a hopeful dependance upon God for everlasting glory your evidences will be more ready and sooner come to hand The motions of our souls are various and through corruption very confused and dark and this is that which makes it so difficult upon actual search to dâ—…cern how it stands between us and God it 's for want of observation But now if there be constant observation of what passeth between us and God how he hath quickned comforted and owned us in our attendance upon him and what he hath done to bring on our souls in the way of life these will make up an evidence and will abundantly conduce to the quickning and comforting of our hearts Use I. For Information It shews us 1. The Reason why so many neglect and contemn God's Word because they never gâ—… benefit by it they find no life in it therefore no delight in it Those that are quickned 〈◊〉 knowledge the mercy and improve it they esteem the Word and have a greater câ—…science of their duty It is not enough to find truth in truth not to be able to contradâ—… it but you must find life then we will prize and esteem it when it hath been lively in its operations to our souls 2. It shews the Reason why so many forget the Word because they are not quickned You would remember it by a good token if there were a powerful impression left upon your souls and the reason is because you do not meditate upon it that you may receive this lively influence of the Spirit For a Sermon would not be forgotten if it had left any lively impression upon your souls 3. If we want quickning we must go to God for it and God works powerfully by the influence of his grace and so he quickens us by his Spirit and he works morally by the Word both by the Promises and Threatnings thereof and so if you would be quickned you must use the means attend upon Reading and Preaching and meditating upon the Word As he works powerfully with respect to himself so morally by reasonings Use II. By way of Reflection upon our selves Have we had any of these Experiences David found life in God's Word therefore resolves never to forego it or forget it Therefore what experience have you had of the Word of God surely at least at first conversion there was the work of Faith and Repentance at first you will have this experience How were you brought home to God what have you had no quickning from the Word of God Case But here 's a Case of Conscience Doth every one know their Conversion or way of their own Conversion Christians are usually sensible of this first work There is so much bitter sorrow and afterwards so much rejoycing of hope which doth accompany that surely this should not be strange But though you have not been so wary to mark God's dealings with you and the particular quicknings of your souls yet at least when the Lord raised you out of your security and brought you home to himself you should have remembred it 1 Thess. 1. 9. They themselves shew of us what manner of entring we had unto you The entrance usually is known though afterward the work be carried on with less observation Growth is not so sensible as the first change God's first work is most powerful meets with greater opposition and so leaves a greater feeling upon us and therefore it were strange if we were brought home to Christ and no way privy and conscious to the way of it as if all were done in our sleep I say to think so were to give security a soft Pillow to rest on And therefore what quicknings had you then Can you say Well I shall never forget this happy season and occasion when God first awakened me to look after himself Many of God's Children cannot trace the particular Footsteps of their Conversion and mark out all the Stages of Christ's Journey and approach to their Souls 〈◊〉 are not alike thus troubled But yet that men may not please themselves with the 〈◊〉 position of imaginary grace wrought in them without their privity and knowledge let â—…e speak to this grand Case this manner of entrance of Christ into our souls how we are quickned from the dead and made living 1. None are converted but are first convinced of their danger and evil estate God's first work is upon their understandings Ier. 31. 19. After I was instructed I smote upon the thigh c. There is some light breaks in upon the Soul which sets them seriously a considering What am I Whither am I going What will become of me And Rom. 7. 9. When the
freedom and sovereignty 2. Sometimes to manifest the power of his grace both in the person that is endued with it and the power of his grace upon others As to the person himself in whom this wisdom is found when they are young the Lord doth shew he can subdue them by his Spirit and make their prejudices vanish enlarge their understanding and over-rule their heart 1 Iohn 2. 14. I write to you young men because ye are strong and the Word of God abideth in you and ye have overcome the wicked one In that slippery Age when Lusts were boistrous Temptations most violent and they usually uncircumspect and head-strong and give up themselves to an ungoverned licence yet then can God subdue their hearts and make them stand out against the snares of the Devil And then with respect to others when by the foolish he will confound the wisdom of the wise and blast the pride of man and cast down all conceit in external priviledges and give young ones a more excellent spirit than the aged as the Apostle intimates such a thing 1 Cor. 1. 26. Not many wise men after the flesh not many mighty not many noble are called But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things that are mighty And our Lord Mat. 11. 25 26. Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and revealed them unto Babes Even so Father for so it seemed good in thy sight Usually God will do so when he will punish the unfaithfulness of those that are in publick place and office The Law shall perish from the Priest and Counsel from the Ancient God will not take the usual way and course but will give his Spirit and graces of his Spirit to them and deny it to those that should be Builders Now what Use shall we make of this There may be an Abuse of such a Point as this and there may be a very good Use. To prevent the Abuse 1 This is not to be taken so but that there should be reverence shewed to the aged Job 32. 4 5 6. Elihu had waited till Iob's Friends had spoken because they were elder than he It is an abuse of men of a proud persuasion of their own knowledge and learning to despise the aged especially when they also have a competent measure of the same Spirit The Scripture speaks of Paul the aged certainly there is a reverence due to gray hairs And it argues a great disorder when the Staff of Government is broken and the established Order is overturned when a child shall behave himself proudly against the ancient Isa. 3. 5. And young men shall peark up to the despising of their Elders Deut. 28. And 2. this is not to be applied so to prejudice the general case of consulting with the Ancients which was Rehoboam's sin though God sometimes giveth wisdom to young men yet the usual course is that Iob 32. 7. I said days should speak and multitude of years should teach wisdom Certainly those that are old they are freer from passions bettered by use and experience and long continuance in study have more advantages to add to their knowledge therefore usually though the bodily eyes be dim the understanding may be most clear and sharp Use 2. The Use in general is twofold That young men should not be discouraged nor despised 1. Not discouraged We use to say youth for strength and age for wisdom but if they apply their hearts to Religion and the study of God's will and with knowledge join practice they may profit and so as they may be a means to shame those that are elder while they come behind them in many gracious endowments They are not to be discouraged as if it were too soon for them to enter into a strict course or grow eminent therein for God may glorifie himself in their Sobriety Temperance Chastity Zeal Courage and the setting their strong and eager spirits against sin it is a mighty honour to God Psal. 8. 2. Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength because of thine enemies c. The graces of God in young ones do mightily turn to the praise of his glorious grace and God is admired in them and it is an honour and comfort to you also Eph. 1. 12. In Christ before me it is a just upbraiding to elder people that lie longer in sin 2. Nor yet should youth be despised 1 Tim. 4. 12. Let no man despise thy youth God's gifts should not be despised in any nor stir up rancor God may speak by them as he spoke by Samuel and to Samuel when he spoke not to old Eli. Having premised this let me come to apply it particularly though briefly it conduceth then 1. To the encouragement of youth to betake themselves to the ways of God O consider let us begin with God betimes do not spend your youth in vanity but in a serious mortified course This is your sharp and active time when your spirits are fresh therefore if your Watch is set right now you may understand more than the Ancients Give up your hearts to a religious course let not the Devil feast upon the flower of your youth and God be put off with the fragments and scraps of Satan's Table while you are young take in with God it 's a great honour to God and it will be an honour and advantage to you Mat. 11. 15 16. When the Children cry Hosanna to the Son of David and the Pharisees reproved him for it Christ approves of it saying Have ye never read Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise When young ones take kindly it is a great blessing therefore is judgment hanging over this Nation that youth is so degenerated whereas formerly they were addicted to Religion now they are addicted to all manner of lusts and vanity Then it would be an honour and comfort to you the sooner we begin with God the more we glorifie God and the more praise to God Eph. 1. 12. That we should be to the praise of his glory who first trusted in Christ. They that get into Christ above others they glorifie Grace above others Rom. 16. 7. They were in Christ before me He that first gets into Christ he hath the advantage of others Seniority in Grace is a preferment as well as in Nature And then it is a great advantage Eccles. 12. 1. Remember thy Creator in the days of thy youth When we begin betimes with God we have more opportunity of serving and enjoying God than others have A man should bear the yoke in his youth Lam. 3. If the bent of our inclinations were set right in our youth it would prevent much and hinder the growth of sin Though a man cannot plant Grace in his heart that 's the Lord's own work yet it keeps sin in and prevents inveterate custom
is understanding So much as we hate sin so much of spiritual wisdom and spiritual understanding Certainly to hate sin is wisdom I prove it from the nature of sin All disobedience is the greatest folly that can be in the world and therefore if to sin be to do foolishly â—…o hate sin is to be wise and not to have understanding certainly is a fruit of solly for a man to do that which will condemn himself if ever he comes to himself Now when a man comes to himself as when he dies or repents Oh how will his heart condemn and reproach him for the vanity of his worldly course when he is fill'd with his own ways especially Repentance that 's a coming to our selves As a man when he hath slept out his drunkenness and excess and begins to look back upon his follies committed under that distemper such is Repentance it is an after-wisdom and therefore it argues that there was an imprudence and inconsideration of the things we repent of and therefore we condemn our selves That is folly which gratifies those that are our utter enemies now sin it gratifies the Devil which seeks our ruine He goes about seeking whom he may devour 1 Pet. 5. 8. You please him that seeks your utter destruction and will you grieve God and please the Devil That is Folly which brings no disadvantage upon him whom you disobey but upon you it brings the greatest mischief imaginable God is not hurt by your sins he is above our injury Iob 9. 12. If thou be wise thou shalt be wise for thy self but if thou scornest thou alone shalt bear it There is no hurt done to God all the hurt is to our own souls Prov. 8. 36. He that sinneth against me wrongs his own soul and he that hateth me loveth death Every sinner is his own Murderer and his own Destroyer All those Arrows we shoot up against Heaven they fall down with more violence upon our own heads That is folly for a man to hazard a Jewel for a Trifle to stake his Soul and Heaven and Eternal Happiness against a little flesh-pleasing and carnal satisfaction Ionah 2. 8. They that observe lying vanities for sake their own mercies Poor fugacious comforts lying vanities to follow after and forsake their own mercy that is all that happiness which might have been their own A Sinner is a mad Gamesâ—…er that throws away the Kingdom of Heaven at every Cast for a little momentany short delight and vain contentment That is folly to break with him upon whom our All depends our Life Being Comfort Happiness so doth sin make â—…s break with God Isa. 59. 2. Tour iniquities have separated between you and your God Well then if sin be to do foolishly to depart from sin this is wisdom this is understanding Certainly he that provides against the greatest mischief doth escape the greatest danger he is the wise man and not he that provides against temporal inconveniences only as poverty and disgrace He that escapes sin escapes hell the wrath of God the extremest misery that can light upon a poor creature Prov. 15. 24. The way of the wise is above to avoid hell beneath and therefore 't is a high point of wisdom to hate sin 2 As it is a high point of understanding so it is a fruit and effect of understanding According to the degree of understanding that we have so will our hatred of sin be for he saith Through thy precepts I get understanding therefore I hate every false way To prove this by two Reasons 1. Our affections follow our apprehensions There is no way to come to the heart but by the mind by the understanding Look as there is no way to come to the bowels to purge out distempers that are there but by the mouth stomach and other passages that lead to the bowels so there is no way to come to the heart and affections but by the understanding knowledge that begets all other affections those which belong to choice and pursuit or those that belong to slight or aversation Those that belong to choice and pursuit desire delight There is no desire of that which is unknown so in those things that belong to slight and aversation those affections be it grief or shame for sin already committed or fear or hatred that sin may not be committed Grief or shame Ier. 31. 19. After I was instâ—…ucted I smote upon my thigh I was ashamed yea even confounded because I did bear the reproach of my youth It is light which humbles and the soul is affected according to the sight it hath of things or go to those affections which serve to prevent the commission of sin as hatred and fear Hatred in the Text a good understanding goes before a through hatred will follow 2. Reason that when the mind is fraught with truths and gotten a good stock of knowledge by God's precepts then it will be checking and urging the soul to caution against sin and therefore the more understanding you get by God's precepts the more are you warned and put in mind of things Psal. 119. 11. I have hid thy Word in mine heart that I might not sin against thee When the Word hath laid up in the heart a good stock of knowledge there will be one thought or other that will be rising up and defying all temptations wherewith you are assaulted Eph. 6. 17. Take unto you the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God In the spiritual conflict we need weapons not only desensive but offensive not only the shield of Faith but the sword of the Spirit that we may destroy and slay sin and withstand temptation and chase away Satan from us what 's this sword of the Spirit the Word of God the more seasonable relief the more fresh thoughts you have to withstand temptations which are apt to come in upon you Pr. 6. 21 22. Bind them upon thine heart when thou goest it shall lead thee when thou sleepest it shall keep thee and when thou awakest it shall talk with thee This will always be urging him to duty and warning him of his danger A word of Use. 1 Get understanding 2 Never count your selves to understand any thing but as you increase in hatred of sin 1. Get understanding Partly 1 because there are many false ways you will never discern without much understanding There are many false ways that are palliated and represented under the shew of good and we are easily ensnared unless we have light to chuse our way 1 Cor. 2. 8. Had they known it they would not have crucified the Lord of glory A man will be carried on with a great deal of life and activity in a way contrary to God Acts 26. 9. I verily thought with my self that I ought to do many things contrary to the Name of Iesus of Nazareth O the tyranny and madness of an erring Conscience and an ignorant Zealot what a ready
prey is a man to Satan and is carried headlong to destroying courses when a man hath more zeal and earnestness of spirit than knowledge to guide him how will he stumble and dash upon things that are very contrary to the will of God 2 If they can discern them they shall not have a heart and skill to remedy them without understanding VVe shall not have a heart for light will be urging calling upon us minding us of our duty warning us of danger whereas otherwise we shall go on tamely like an Ox to the slaughter and like a Fool to the correction of the Stocks we shall not have this restless importunity of Conscience which is a great restraint of sin And then we shall not have the skill for all is misapplied and misconceived by an ignorant spirit for the whole business of his Religion is making Cordials instead of Purges and Potions instead of Antidotes catching at Promises when Threatnings belong to him lulling his soul asleep with new strains of grace when he should awaken himself to duty 2. Never count your selves to have profited in any thing till your hearts are awakened into a further hatred of sin Christians they are but Notions it is not saving knowledge unless it be in order to practice men have no understanding that have not this active and rooted enmity against sin Psal. 111. 10. A good understanding have all they that do his commandments They that hate sin more and are more weary of corruption He is made wiser by the Word that is made better by it It is not the talker against but the hater of iniquity that is the wise man If wisdom enters upon the heart and breaks out in our practice by that is our thriving in knowledge to be measured 1 Iohn 2. 3. Hereby we know that we know him if we keep his commandments This was God's scope in giving the Word not to make trial of mens wits who could most sharply conceive or of their memories who could most faithfully retain or of their eloquence who could most nimbly discourse but of the sincerity of the heart who could most obediently submit to the will of God Ier. 22. 16. when he had spoke of hating of sin and doing good Was not this to know me saith the Lord This is to know God to hate sin Outward things were not made for sight only but for use as Herbs Plants and Stars so our Reason and the Scriptures the Lord hath given us it is not only for sight but for use that we may be wise to salvation not that we may please our selves with acute notions about the things of God but seriously set our hearts to practise The fourth thing in this general Point is That this wisdom and understanding is gotten by God's precepts Mark I hate every false way why Because by thy precepts I get understanding Where have we it by studying God's Word Rom. 3. 20. By the Law is the knowledge of sin How is the knowledge of sin by the Law three ways according to the nature of the sin according to who is the sinner and according to the guilt and dreadful estate of them that lie in a state of sin so the knowledge of sin that is the nature of it and where it lives and where it reigns and what will be the effects of it all this knowledge is by the Law 1. By the Law is the knowledge of sin quoad naturam peccati There are many things we should never know but by the Law of God though we have some general notions of good and evil Rom. 7. 7. saith the Apostle I had not known sin but by the Law for I had not known lust except the Law had said Thou shalt not covet Those first stirrings and secret lingrings of heart and inclinations to that which is cross to the Will of God that they go before all consent of will and all delight these things we could never discern by the light of nature 2. Quoad subjectum what is the sinner and who is guilty of it So Rom. 7. 9. I was alive without the Law once but when the Commandment came sin revived and I died He saw his lost miserable undone condition by the Law of God The acts of sin are discovered by the Word of God it discovers the thoughts and intents of the heart Heb. 4. 12. and state of sin our natural face the condition wherein we are is to be seen in this glass 3. Quoad reatum magnitudinem peccati what will be the effects of it Rom. 5. 20. The Law entred that the offence might abound Therefore the Law was given that it might work a deep sense of the evil consequents of sin and what wrath man was bound over to for violating the righteous Law The Law represents the heinous nature of sin as it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a transgression of the Law as it strikes at God's Being or at God's Authority seeks to justle him out of the Throne as it contradicts his Sovereignty and plucks the Scepter out of his hand and the Crown from his head and makes men to say Who is Lord over us As if we had nothing to guide us but our own Lusts the Word of God discovers this pride of heart and then the manifold mischiefs of sin are discovered we get this understanding by the Word It is better to know these mischiefs of sin by the threatnings of the Word than by our own bitter experience it is sin that separates from God and renders us uncapable of all blessings Use 1. Study your selves and take a view of the case and state of your souls by the glass of the Word see what you gain by every reading hearing every time you converse with him what is given out to convince you of sin or awaken your soul against sin 2. When you consult with the Word beg the light of the Spirit which is only lively and efficacious The Apostle speaks of knowing things in the evidence and demonstration of the Spirit and of power 1 Cor. 2. 4. There is the same demonstration of the Spirit there 's a manifest difference between the evidence of Reason and Arguments held out from a natural understanding and between the illumination or the demonstration of the Spirit There are many that may have a full knowledge of the letter and the sense of the words as they lie open to the evidence of reason yet be without the light and power of those truths for that 's a fruit of the demonstration of the Spirit the lively light of the Holy Ghost that goes along with the word SERMON CXII PSAL. CXIX VER 105. Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path THE present world as much as it suits with our carnal nature 't is but like a howling wilderness with respect to Canaan in which there are many crooked paths and dangerous precipices yea many privy snares and secret ambushes laid for us by
Herod enquired after the place where Jesus was born not to adore him but to kill him Mat. 2. 8. Our great Rule is Iohn 17. 17. Sanctifie them by thy truth thy Word is truth When you come to study the Scriptures to be the better for them and not to cavil then you are in the way to find profit from them 4. Some come to the Word leavened with some carnal affections and so their hearts are blinded by their lusts and passion 2 Cor. 4. 3 4. If our Gospel be hid it is hid to them that are lost In whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not There is evidence enough in the truth but their hearts are wedded to their sins and so cannot see it they are ambitious and seek after honour and worldly greatness and the whole bent and scope of the Scripture being against their design they can never have a perfect understanding of it their hearts are full of Avarice Earthly-mindedness and some other beloved sin that they cherish which doth defile all that they touch even the very Word of God Hagg. 2. 13. A man that was unclean by a dead body whatsoever he touched was also unclean even holy things And Tit. 1. 15. To the impure all things are impure And so by the just judgment of God are blinded and hardned in their own prejudices for the light they have hindreth them from discerning the truth 5. Some content themselves with some superficial apprehensions and do not dig deep in the Mines of knowledge and therefore no wonder they mistake in many things Prov. 2. 4 5. If thou seekest her as silver and searchest for her as for hid treasures Then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God No excellent things are to be had without pain and industry and search certainly the knowledge of God's Word must cost us great pains 6. Where men are right in the main and give diligence to know God's mind there will be mistakes in lesser things All have not parts alike and gifts and graces alike and therefore there is some variety of opinions and interpretations of Scripture among the godly wise Every man is not so happy to be so well studied nor hath not that ability to understand nor so furnished with acquired helps of Arts and Tongues nor such a degree of the Spirit There is a difference in age growth and experience among good men some are Babes and some grown in years in Christianity Phil. 3. 15. Grace is bewrayed in knowledge as well as in holiness Object 2. If there be such a Light in the Scriptures what need is there of the Spirit Answ. I answer The Scriptures are the means of Light the Spirit is the Author of Light both together enlighten the eyes Psal. 19. 8. These two must be taken in conjunction not in exclusion To pretend to the Spirit and neglect the Scriptures makes way for Error and fond conceits Isa. 8. 20. To the law and to the testimony if they speak not according to this Word it is because there is no light in them Light is not contrary to Light so to study the Scriptures and neglect the Spirit who searcheth out the deep things of God 1 Cor. 2. 11. leaveth us in darkness about God's mind The object to be known is fixt in the Scriptures but the faculty that knoweth must be enlightned by the Spirit There is a literal understanding of the Scriptures and a spiritual understanding 1 Cor. 2. 14. Now as to the spiritual understanding of them there needs the Spirit for the natural man cannot understand the things of the Spirit so that here is a fair correspondence between the Word and the Spirit Object 3. If the Scriptures be so plain what need the Ministry I answer Answ. 1. It is God's institution and we must submit to it though we could see no reason for it That it is God's institution it is plain for he hath set some in the Church not only Apostles and Prophets but Pastors and Teachers to apply Scriptures to us And 1 Cor. 1. 21. It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe If there were no reason but this because it is God's institution we should submit to it 2. The use of the Ministry is to explain and vindicate truth Men darken counsel with words and render plain things obscure by their litigations and unprofitable debates Now they are set for the defence of the truth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Phil. 1. 7. And the Ministry must be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tit. 1. 9. Able to convince the gainsayers good at holding and drawing it is the humane help for weak understandings The Eunuch was reading and could not tell what to make of it then God sent him an Interpreter Acts 8. Now God's help should not be despised when he will employ men to salve doubts to guide us in our way to Heaven we should thankfully accept of it rather than quarrel at the institution 3. They are of use to apply Generals to particular Cases and to teach us how to deduce genuine Inferences from those truths laid down in the Scriptures Mal. 2. 7. In this sense it is said The Priests lips should preserve knowledge and they should seek the Law at his mouth for he is the messenger of the Lord of Hosts God hath appointed this office to some to solve the doubts that do arise about particular Exigences and Cases and to make out the mind of God to his People otherwise they need go no farther than the Tables and Books of Moses to seek the Law but God hath appointed some in the Church that are skill'd in consequences and deductions to raise matter therefrom so that it is a Minister's work to open and explain Scripture 4. There is a use of the Ministry to keep Doctrines still afoot in the Church and to keep us in remembrance Ministers are the Lord's remembrancers it is a great part of their office to mind People of their duty The Word is a Light but it must be set in the Candlestick of the Church they are to hold out the Light for our direction and guidance 5. There is a peculiar blessing and efficacy to a Christian from their calling Mat. 28. 20. Lo I am with you to the end of the world Object 4. It is said 2 Pet. 3. 16. That there are some things hard to be understood therefore how should it be a clear Rule to us Thereupon many take occasion to tax the Scriptures of obscurity and cry out that nothing is certain in Religion and so hinder and discourage men from the study of the Word Answ. 1. I answer The Apostle saith there are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 some things hard to be understood but doth not say there are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 things that cannot be understood not there are things impossible to be understood but there 's some difficulty in
Though for the main we give up our selves to live according to the will of God yet consider notwithstanding our sins what constant humbling confiderations there are to keep us sensible of our defects First All that you do is not worthy of God who can serve so great a Majesty as the Lord is according as he should be served Iosh. 14. 29. You cannot serve the Lord for he is a holy and a jealous God Alas such is the poverty of humane condition that they can never perform service becoming his Majesty have you a due sense of his purity and holiness Nay how jealous he is of the respects of his people Secondly Not worthy of such a pure Law which requireth such perfect service at our hands Psal. 19. 6 7 8. The law of the Lord is perfect converting the soul c. What doth that speculation produce that a short exposition of the Law begetteth a large opinion of our own righteousness Thirdly Not worthy such great hopes 1 Thess. 2. 12. That ye walk worthy of God who hath called you to his Kingdom and Glory Since we have such great wages we should do more work Is this for Heaven Is this for eternity Fourthly Not such as will answer our obligations We are indebted to all the Persons of the Trinity God himself for our portion Christ our Redeemer the Spirit for our Guide and Comforter The Gentiles greatly obliged to God for fruitful Seasons The Jews though acquainted only with Gods patience and forbearance the Ceremonial Law was a testification of guilt or a Bond that shewed the Creatures Debt this Bond was not cancelled Fifthly Not answerable to the new Nature in Gods Children they would be in a state of perfect conformity and subjection to God A seed worketh through the Clods so they groan under the reliques of corruption and sin Rom. 7. 24. longing for the time when they shall be more like God when they shall serve him without spot or blemish therefore are unsatisfied with their present imperfections These things considered we should ever keep humble and thankful praising Gods Grace Isai. 63. 7. I will mention the loving kindness of the Lord and the praises of the Lord according to all that the Lord hath bestowed upon us and the great goodness towards the house of Israel which he hath bestowed on them according to his mercies and the multitude of his loving kindnesses Use 5. Directeth us how to pray Cast your selves at Gods feet pleading his mercy We have heard the Kings of Israel aâ—…e merciful Kings 1 Kings 20. 31. you have heard so of the God of Israel try whâ—… mercy will do for you say as David here Deal with thy servant according to thy mercy My prayers have no other foundation of hope but thy mercy I am nothing and would be nothing but what I have from thee I have no merits but thou hast mercy all that I have and expect to have floweth and must flow from this Fountain take heed of challenging Duty as a Debt no Lord thy mercy is all my plea as all thy servants before have done Lord temember me in thy mercy if any have other things to plead let them plead I am resolved to use no other Plea Psal. 13. 5. But I have trusted in thy mercy Second Branch Teach me thy Statutes This may be considered apart by it self or with respect to the Context 1. Apart as an intire prayer in its self So the Doctrine is Doctr. 'T is God must teach us his Statutes This will appear if we consider 1. What it is to be taught of God There is a difference between Grammatical Knowledge and Spiritual Illumination or a literal instruction and a spiritual instruction a greater difference than there is between teaching a Child to spell and read the words and a Man to understand the sense Literal instruction is when we learn the truths contained in the Word by rote and talk one after another of Divine things But Spiritual Illumination is when these things are revealed to us by the Spirit of God as we read of the evidence and demonstration of the Spirit 1 Cor. 2. 4. Others have a form of knowledge Rom. 2. 20. Some have only the report of Christ have but an humane credulity or the recommendation of others that reveal the Doctrine of God to them Others receive a revelation made to their souls their eyes are opened by the Spirit Isai. 53. 1. Once more there is a difference between the Spirits enlightening in a way of gifts and common Grace and his enlightening in a way of special and saving Grace Some that are enlightned by the Spirit fall away Heb. 6. 4. Others are taught of God so as to come to him by Christ Iohn 6. 45. This latter sort that are savingly enlightned have not only their minds opened but their hearts enclined So to be taught as to be drawn to faith and practice this is proper to God who is the Soveraign Dispenser of Grace 2. This will appear if we consider the heart of Man which is naturally full of darkness and oppressed by the prejudices of customs and evil habits 1 Cor. 〈◊〉 14. But the natural man receiveth not the things of God 2 Cor. 4. 4. The God of this world hath blinded their eyes This Veil can only be removed by the Spirit of God After Grace received we know but in part 1 Cor. 13. 9. and much of the matter which becloudeth the mind still remaineth with us And when our lusts are awakened by temptations our old blindness returneth upon us and we strangely forget our selves and our Duty for the present Therefore we have need to go to God to be taught 2 Pet. 1. 9. He that wanteth these things is blind and cannot see afar off 3. If we consider the matter to be taught 't is the mysterious Doctrine that came out of the bosome of God Every Art hath its mystery which Strangers cannot judge of 1 Tim. 3. 16. All Scripture is given by inspiration This was a Secret which had not been known without a Revelation God hath his Mysteries which no man knoweth but by the Spirit of God Matth. 13. 1â—… To you 't is given to know the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven but to them it is not given Those that have Scriptures yet have scales on their eyes 1 Cor. 2. 14. they have not saving knowledge How sharp-sighted soever graceless souls may be in things that concern the present World yet they are blind in spiritual things so as to be affected and engaged thereby seriously to turn to God Yea how accurately soever they can discourse in the Theory and preach of Christ and his ways yet they have no transforming light Gods mysteries must be seen in his own light or they make no impression upon us Psal. 36. 9. In thy light we shall see light The Scriptures containing the summ of the Lords mind none can of themselves attain to the meaning of them 'T was
servants they are they do nothing but what their master commandeth and what he commandeth they see reason to obey Second Branch Give me understanding that I may know thy testimonies This is subjoined to the former Plea First Because David would not be a servant in name and title only but in deed and in truth and therefore would fain know his duty Secondly To shew the difference between Gods servants and the servants of other Lords who command us Prov. 14. 25. The Kings favour is towards a wise servant they see them wise find them wise and then love them but God must begin with us his favour maketh us wise Doctr. Gods best Servants think they can never enough beg Divine illumination David doth often enforce this request Reasons 1. Our blindness in the matters of God is a great part of our spiritual misery Ephes. 5. 8. Ye were sometimes darkness There is a Veil lying upon our hearts not easily removed and taken away All the mischief introduced by the Fall is not cured at once but by degrees as spiritual strength encreaseth we grow up into it so spiritual light The maim of the understanding as well as the will is not wholly cured till we come to Heaven for here we know but in part till God give us understanding we are utterly blind the best of Gods servants have cause to acknowledge it in themselves the remnants of ignorance and incredulity The Apostle biddeth them to adde to faith vertue to vertue knowledge that is skill to manage the work of our heavenly Calling 2. None are so sensible of this blindness as they 'T is some proficiency in knowledge to understand our ignorance Prov. 30. 2 3. Surely I am more bruitish than any man and have not the understanding of a man I neither learned wisdom nor have the knowledg of the holy The most knowing see they need more enlightening The best of our knowledge is to know our imperfections 1 Cor. 8. 2. He that thinketh he knoweth any thing knoweth nothing as he ought to know 3. There is room for encrease for in the best we never know so much of Gods ways but we may know more Hos. 6. 3. Then shall we know if we follow on to know the Lord. Prov. 4. 18. But the path of the Iust is as a shining light that shineth more and more unto the perfect day True sanctified knowledg is always growing If we sit down with measures received 't is a sign we do not know things as we should know them Christ grew in knowledge not in Grace for the fulness of the Godhead dwelt in him bodily Practical knowledg is never at a stand though a man may see round the compass and light of saving truth yet he may know them more spiritually and more feelingly 4. The profit of Divine Revelation as to these three things First A clear discerning of the things of God not a confused Notion as the blind man in the Gospel saw men as Trees walking So 2 Cor. 4. 6. For God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness hath shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledg of the Glory of God in the face of Iesus Christ. And 1 Iohn 5. 20. And hath given us an understanding that we may know him that is true Every degree of knowledg is Gods gift What other men see confusedly we see more distinctly in this light Secondly Firm assent Then shall I know thy testimonies know them from others that have not Divine Authority 'T is the spirit of Wisdom and Revelation that openeth our eyes to see the truth and worth of heavenly things contained in the promise Ephes. 1. 17 18. The father of glory may give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledg of him the eyes of your understandings being enlightened that ye may know the hope of his calling and the riches of the glory of the inheritance of the Saints in light And Matth. 16. 17. Flesh and blood hath not revealed these things unto thee Humane credulity we may have upon the report of others the evidence of the truths themselves but this firm assent is the fruit of Divine illumination Thirdly Hearty practice Let thy testimonies not only strike my ear but affect my heart command my hand let me know them so as to do them for otherwise our knowledge is little worth God doth so direct that he doth also enable us to approve our obedience to him sincerely and faithfully There is a knowledge that puffeth us up 1 Cor. 8. 1. which yet is a gift and floweth from the common influence of the Spirit Ier. 22. 16. Was not this to know me saith the Lord But there is a greater efficacy in practical knowledge such as warmeth the heart with love to the truths known Iohn 4. 10. If thou knewest the gift c. Such a light as proceedeth from the gracious influence of the Spirit Use 1. Let us be often dealing with God in prayer that our judgments may be enightened with the understanding of the word and our affections renewed and strengthened unto the true obedience of it beg for that lively light of the Spirit 1. We need it In how many things do we erre in the things which know how weak are we both as to sound judgment and practice The Apostle saith We know but in part 1 Cor. 13. 9. We are but of yesterday and we know nothing Job 8. 9. Therefore we have need to go to the Ancient of days that he may teach us knowledge and kindle our Lamps anew at the Fountain of light Alas we take it in by drops or by degrees as a tender and sore eye must be used to the light We have but little time to get knowledg in and do not improve that little time we have 2. We have leave to ask it Iam. 1. 5. If any man lack wisdom let him ask it of God and why do we not seeing we have a liberty to ask it 3. God hath promised to bestow it he will give his spirit to them that ask it Luke 11. 13. And to beget Faith in us If ye then being evil know how to give good gifts to your Children how much more shall your heavenly father give the holy spirit to them that ask him Here is a notable Argument he reasoneth and promiseth And Prov. 2. 3. we must cry for knowledg Well then let us be earnest that we may not miss that which is to be had for asking beg for an heart to know Ier. 24. 7. I will give them an heart to know me that I am the Lord. Use 2. It informeth us That there is somewhat more than the Word necessary to give us knowledge God must not only reveal the Object but prepare the Subject David having a Law beggeth understanding that he might know Gods testimonies The literal sense and meaning of the words may be understood by common gifts and ordinary industry unless men be exceedingly blinded and
warnings to us As a Beacon on fire warneth all the Countrey to be in Armes You see what 't is to give way to the beginnings of sin not to be under the blessed Conduct of Gods Spirit Some are notoriously wicked judicially given up to be more visibly under the dominion of sin that others may take warning how they come into that woful slavery Phil. 3. 19 20. For many walk of whom I have told you often and now tell you even weeping that they are enemies to the Cross of Christ whose end is destruction whose God is their belly who glory in their shame who mind earthly things but our conversation is in Heaven 3. It should make us fly to God for Grace when the whole world lyeth in wickedness Isai. 6. 5. I am a man of unclean lips and I dwell among a people of unclean lips 'T is hard to converse with defiled ones and not be defiled to keep our selves unspotted from the World Psal. 106. 35. They were mingled among the heathen and learned their works The contagion of sin overspreads presently as a man by touching that which was unclean became unclean We easily catch a sickness from others but we cannot convey our health to them Use 2. Teacheth us to keep up our profession even in lesser truths I esteem all thy precepts concerning all things When men would wrangle us out of our Duty we are to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 faithful in a little Great matters depend on little things We are tryed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Pet. 1. 12. by the present truths whether we will owne the ways of God Revel 14. 13. Blessed are the dead which dye in the Lord or for the Lord from henceforth yea saith the spirit that they may rest from their labour Why from henceforth Why before the sufferings of Christians were from Heathens and professed enemies and they were acknowledged blessed as dying for the Lord. But now when Anti-Christ and false Christians came up they did pretend to be for Christ and friends to him and this might be a discouragement to them in their suffering but saith the Holy Ghost From henceforth blessed are they which dye for the Lord when Pseudo-Christians begin to come up and persecute the heavenly Christians 'T is as blessed a thing to suffer under Pseudo-Christians and Anti-Christianism as it was to suffer under Heathens and Pagans professed enemies to Christianity I speak of this because the Orthodoxy of the world is usually an Age too short In things publickly received 't is easie to be right Christ is forced to gain upon the world by inches A man may acknowledge the Trinity the satisfaction of Christ among Papists but 't is exceeding praise-worthy to owne Christ when others scorn and reject him The world will allow us to esteem the ways of God in some lesser things that are out of Controversie and are not maligned but this esteem must have that extent as becometh the people of God to have an hearty esteem of all the precepts of God and all things contained therein 2. Let me come to his respect to the ways of God and from his respect with the extent I shall observe this Doctrine Doctr. That it becometh the people of God to have a practical heart-engaging esteem of all the precepts of God and all things contained therein Let meshew you what is this esteem the Children of God have for his precepts First There is something implyed and presupposed Secondly Wherein it doth formally consist Thirdly The qualifications of a right and saving esteem of the ways of God First There is something implied and presupposed before we can come to esteem the precepts of God As First Knowledg and a right discerning This is necessary partly that a man may be able to make a distinction between good and evil otherwise he cannot esteem the good and eschew the evil for without knowledg the heart is not good Prov. 19. 2. If we should stumble blindfold upon a good way we are not the more accepted with God nor advantaged in our spiritual Course The clearer our light the warmer our love The more clear and certain apprehension we have of spiritual things our faith is more stedfast love more vehement joy more sound hope more constant patience more sublime our pursuit of true happiness more earnest And partly because a man cannot esteem that which he knoweth not The will being caeca potentia blind in it self followeth the direction and guidance of the understanding The ignorance of the nature and necessity of holiness is the cause of the neglect of it Iohn 4. 10. If thou knewest the gift c. Many condemn good for evil take evil for good boldly rush into sin reject the ways of God for want of knowledge But then 't is spiritual illumination that begets estimation 1 Cor. 2. 14. The truth and worth of spiritual things must be seen by a spiritual eye When the Spirit enlighteneth a man he beginneth to see that which he knew not before to see things in another manner Secondly Advertency or application of the mind to the object or things esteemed that he seriously consider of the matter and what it is best to do it 's not a sudden rash undertaking The Scripture speaketh of applying our hearts to wisdom Psal. 90. 12. and Prov. 2. 2. Apply thy heart to understanding Prov. 23. 12. Apply thine heart to instruction and thines ears to the ways of knowledg Make it your business seriously to consider things that differ But then Secondly Wherein lyes this esteem or wherein doth it formally consist Esteem is an approbation of the will or an hearty love There is the approbation of the understanding and the approbation of the will The approbation of the understanding is a naked sense or an acknowledgment of what is good Rom. 2. 18. Thou knowest his will and approvest the things that are more excellent There is an excellency in holiness that winneth esteem even there where it is not embraced All convinced men see the evil of sin and are half of the mind to quit it they approve the Law which they violate by a bare naked approbation But then there is the approbation of the heart or will there is love and liking in it and this is called esteem This is seen in two things consent and choice Consent to take this Law for our rule and choice whatever temptation we have to the contrary Men chuse what they highly esteem In short 't is such an approbation as doth engage affection such an affection as doth engage practice Esteem is the fruit of love First There is a consenting to the Law that it is good Rom. 7. 16. There is a difference between assent and consent A man may assent to the truth and goodness of the Law that doth not consent to the goodness of it as the Devils assent to the truth of Gods Being that do not consent to take him for their portion Iames 2. 19.
house as he that hath none If the Spirit of God be thy master thou shalt learn though never so blockish 3. Wisdom stands upon the Threshold or at the Door of Gods Word as ready to open the treasures of knowledge The entrance of thy word giveth light No sooner is a Soul entred into the Spirits School but he becometh a Proficient on first acquaintance with Scriptures he seeth great light Yea she sendeth abroad to invite Comers Prov. 9. 3 4 5. She hath sent forth her maidens she crieth upon the highest places of the City Whoso is simple let him come in hither as for him that wanteth understanding she saith to him Come eat of my Bread and drink of the Wine which I have mingled Therefore go on with thy Duty He that sent an Interpreter to the Eunuch to guide him when reading part of Isaiah's Prophecy which he understood not will direct and guide thee in the knowledge of all necessary truths Psal. 25. 8 9. Prov. 2. 2 3 4 5. 4. It is a good advantage to be sensible of our blindness Rev. 3. 17 18. Because thou sayest I am rich and encreased with goods and stand in need of nothing and knowest not that thou art wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked I counsel thee to buy of me Gold tried in the fire that thou mayest be rich and white raiment that thou mayest be cloathed and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear and anoint thine eyes with eye-salve that thou mayest see The first thing a man seeth is his own blindness nakedness and wretchedness Iohn 9. 39. And Iesus said For judgment I am come into the world that they which see not might see and that they which see might be made blind Many times they which conceitedly think they see are made blind Those that are ignorant and humbled under the sense thereof Christ will open their eyes but they that are conceited of their own parts and knowledge their hearts are darkened more and more and they are given up to follow their own fancies The simple may see further than others because they swell not with the presumption of their own wit Surgunt indocti rapiunt Coelum cùm nos Doctrinâ nostrâ detrudimur in Gehennam Sometimes simple people are more forward and earnest than others and men of weak parts and small breeding may have strong affections A blunt Iron when heated may enter deeper into a board than a sharp Tool when cold Great Doctors and Rabbies are proud and careless and poor broken-hearted sinners are warm and serious Your labour will not be in vain SERMON CXLIV PSAL. CXIX VER 131. I opened my mouth and panted for I longed for thy Commandments HERE is the use that the Psalmist maketh of the former commendation of the Word it is wonderful and mysterious clear and perspicuous now he declareth his great affection to it These words were used by Nazianzen when his Father committed to him the care of the Church of Nazianzum he beginneth his Speech with it Orat. 8. as being a word of more than ordinary comfort and Grace and direction David was in a fainting condition through the passionateness of his desire I longed and that longing caused a languor as all strong desires do His affection wrought upon his Body or else affected his Soul as bodily refreshments desired and wanted do the Body I opened my mouth and panted for I longed for thy Commandments In the Words there are I. The vehemency of his passion I opened my mouth and panted II. The reason or cause of it For I longed for thy Commandments 1. I opened my mouth and panted A Metaphor taken from men scorched and sweltred with heat or from those that have run themselves out of breath in following after the thing which they would overtake The former Metaphor expressed the vehemency of his love the other the earnestness of his pursuit he was like a man gasping for breath and sucking in the cool Air. Iudaea was an hot Countrey and therefore such expressions are frequent The like expressions that come somewhat near it are those 2 Cor. 6. 11. O ye Corinthians our mouth is opened to you our heart is enlarged When he did vehemently desire their profit And Iob saith They waited for my speech as the rain they opened their mouth wide as for the latter rain Iob 29. 22. A vehement passionate desire affects the mind as an insatiate thirst the Body Thus will they be affected that are sensible of the wonders of the Law and enlightened by it The reason of this passion I longed noteth an high degree of desire What did he long for Gods Commandments that is the saving knowledge of the Doctrine of salvation or to find the use benefit light comfort and power of the word of God Doctr. That Gods Children have strong and vehement affections and desires after the comfort and benefit of the word of God Here is 1. Opening the mouth and 2. Panting as for fresh Air and 3. Longing for the Commandments All three expressions imply an intensiveness of affection Surely David prized holiness at a greater rate than we do or else he would not use expressions so strange to us See the like Psal. 119. 20. My soul breaketh for the longing it hath unto thy judgments at all times Desire is the stretching forth of the soul to the thing desired Now his soul did so stretch towards these spiritual comforts that it did even break and crack again in the stretching So Psal. 42. 1. As the Hart panteth after the water-brooks so panteth my soul after thee O God Harts are thirsty Creatures especially when chased or having eaten Serpents Considerations First The soul never worketh better than in the strength of some eminent affection In all things that we take in hand we do but so so act but chilly and weakly while we have a listless and remiss will but when the force of affection is upon us the soul is carried on strongly either in abomination or prosecution for affections are the forcible and vigorous motions of the will Now the soul never doth well but under such an affection Were it not for affections our Nature would be sluggish and idle as Plutarch 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 like a Pilot at Sea without a Wind. The Ship moveth slowly when there are no Winds stirring to fill the Sails Or like a Chariot without Wheels or Horses or a Bird when her Wings are clipped They spur us on to what we affect Men are heavy and lazy because they have no affection Exod. 36. 2. And Moses called Bezaleel and Aholiab and every wise-hearted man in whose heart the Lord had put wisdom even every one whose heart stirred him up to come unto the work to do it Man findeth a force within himself his heart maketh him willing the stronger the affections the better the man acteth with greater strength and vivacity for they are the vigorous motions of the will
ruine of Bodies and Souls and all that they have Their Mirth is the Mirth of Fools Eccl. 7. 4 5. Their service the sacrifice of Fools Eccl. 5. 1. 2 Sam. 24. 10. I have done very Foolishly Therefore give me Understanding 2. Knowledge is our cure The state of Grace is called a state of Light Eph. 5. 8. Ye were sometimes darkness but now are ye light in the Lord. So that the new estate is described by Light a directive and a perswasive Light 't is very notable in Eph. 5. 14. Arise from the dead and God shall give thee light And Act. 26. 18. To turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God In our natural estate we are all over darkness slaves to the Prince of darkness doing the works of darkness and were posting on apace into utter darkness and therefore 't is Light must cure us and guide us into a better course Col. 1. 13. Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness and translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son Second Reason is Because of the excellency of Understanding Therefore we should make it our request to God Here are four Considerations 1. Knowledge in the general is Mans Excellency 'T is our priviledge above the Beasts many of them excel us in beauty of Colour in strength and nimbleness and vivacity and long Life and acuteness of sense but we excel them in knowledge And so God hath taught us more than the Beasts of the field Man is a rational Creature his Life standeth in Light Ioh. 1. 4. In him was life and the life was the light of men Other Creatures have Life but not such a Life as is Light are not indowed with a reasonable soul and a faculty of Understanding The more of Knowledge there is increased in us the more of Man there is in us 2. Divine Knowledge is better than all other Knowledge To know Gods Nature and Will to know how God will be pleased and how we may come to injoy him all other knowledge doth but please the Fancy this doth us good to the heart Ier. 9. 23 24. Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom nor the mighty man glory in his might let not the rich man glory in his riches but let him that glorieth glory in this that he understandeth and knoweth me as not in strength so not in natural wisdom Here I may take the Argument of the Text Men do not properly live if they want the Light of Heavenly Wisdom without Divine Knowledge a man is little better than a Beast The Indowment of Reason was not given us meerly to shift for our selves or provide for the animal Life other Creatures do that better by Instinct and natural Sagacity and are contented with less No Mans Life was given him for some other end to know and serve his Maker 3. Of all the knowledge of God Practical knowledge is better than speculative not so much subtlely to be able to discourse of his nature as to obey his Will Ier. 22. 16. He Iudged the cause of the poor and needy was not this to know me saith the Lord The Knowledge of God is not measured by sharpness of Wit but by serious ready practice not strength of Parts but a good and honest Heart so to understand as to keep them Psal. 111. 10. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of Wisdom and a good Understanding have all they that do his Commandments They understand best not who can discourse most subtlely but who live most holily When our Faith is more strong our Reverence of God increased our Obedience more ready then is our Knowledge sound When we follow those Courses which we know God delighteth in Ier. 9. 24. and study to please him in all things 1 Ioh. 2. 4. He that saith I know him and keepeth not his Commandments is a lyar and the truth is not in him He that doth not make Conscience of his Duty he knoweth no such Sovereign Being as God is that hath power to command to save and to destroy Tit. 1. 16. They profess that they know God but in works they deny him So 1 Ioh. 3. 6. Whosoever sinneth hath not seen him nor known him Well then in giving his Word Gods end was not to make trial of their Wits who could most sharply conceive nor of their Memories who could most firmly retain nor of their Eloquence who can most neatly discourse but of their Hearts who will most obediently submit to him that 's knowledge indeed which tendeth to use and practice Scire malum non est malum look as to know evil is not evil for God knoweth evil yet his knowledge is not evil So scire bonum non est bonum to know that which is good doth not make a man good This is the distinction between Understanding and Will the Understanding draweth the Object to its self but the Will is drawn by the Object to it If I understand any thing I am not in a moral sense that which I understand but if I Will any thing or Love any thing I am what I Will and Love This is the difference between the two faculties 4. Transforming Regenerating Saving Knowledge is the best part of Practical knowledge I add this because general knowledge may produce good life or some outward Conformity in the unregenerate 2 Pet. 2. 20. For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the World through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Iesus Christ. Those that are destitute of the saving knowledge of Christ they may cleanse their External Conversation by that Rational Conviction though not Spiritual Illumination though strangers to inward Mortification and be unrenewed in Heart yea avoid gross sins perform external Duties O but the lively saving light such as subdueth the Heart to God such as maketh a thorough change in us that 's the best 2 Cor. 3. 18. But we all with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord are changed into the same Image from glory to glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord. When we so know Christ as to be like him this is like heavens knowledge 1 Ioh. 3. 2. And when he shall appear we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is Common Truths have another efficacy when they understand them by the lively light of the spirit when men know the Torments of Hell so as to flee from them Matth. 3. 7. Flee from wrath to come as a man would out of a ship that is sinking or a house falling so when we see Heaven so as it maketh us seek after it Heb. 4. 1. so to know Christ as to be made like him this will do us good and this is one of Gods best gifts Use. Oh then beg this gift of God Lord give me understanding Eyes Do not beg Riches and Honours and great things in the World but beg for understanding 't is pleasing to God
check our fears when trouble is near God is also near to counterwork our Enemies and support his People Zech. 3. 1 2. And he shewed me Ioshua the high priest standing before the Angel of the Lord and Satan standing at his right hand to resist him And the Lord said unto Satan the Lord rebuke thee O Satan even the Lord that hath chosen Ierusalem rebuke thee is not this a brand pluckt out of the fire Where there is Satan to resist there is an Angel to rebuke as extremities draw nigh God draweth nigh When Laban with great fury followed after Iacob God followed after Laban and stepped between them and commanded Laban not to hurt him When Paul was like to be torn in pieces in an uproar God runneth speedily to his help 2 Cor. 1. 9 10. But we had the sentence of death in our selves that we should not trust in our selves but in God which raiseth the Dead who delivered us from so great a death and doth deliver in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us When Danger cometh to be Danger indeed you will find him a present help Use. 2. To quicken us and encourage us actually to draw nigh to God with the more Confidence that is let us address our selves to converse with him in his Ordinances for his Favour Mercy and Blessing that we may not stand afar off but come boldly To this end Consider whither we come by whom we come in what manner we must come or draw nigh to him 1. To whom we draw near to God as reconciled in Christ. If God were inaccessible it were another matter but divine Justice being satisfied in Christ we come to a Throne of Grace Heb. 4. 16. Let us come boldly unto the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need Gods Throne is a Throne of Justice Grace Glory To the Throne of strict Justice no sinful man can approach to the Throne of Grace every penitent sinner may have access to the Throne of Glory no mortal Man can come in his whole Person his heart may be there so it is said Heb. 10. 19. Having therefore Brethren boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Iesus as Petitioners are admitted to the Prince in the Presence Chamber the way to the Throne of Glory lyeth by the Throne of Grace we pass by one unto the other In short Christ stood before the Throne of Justice when he suffered for our sins Penitent sinners stand before the Throne of Grace when they worship him in Faith after the Resurrection we shall ever stand before the Throne of Glory and ever abide in his Presence Our business now is with the Throne of Grace to give answer and dispatch our suites There is a threefold Throne of Grace the Typical which was the Mercy-seat Psal. 80. 1. Thou that dwellest between the Cherubims shine forth the Real which is Christ Being justified freely by his grace through the Redemption that is in Christ Iesus the Commemorative which is the Lords Supper where is a representation of Wisdom and Obsignation of the Grace of Christ in the New Testament This Throne of Grace is set up every where in the Church it standeth in the midst of God's People as the Tabernacle did in the midst of Israel For God is always in all places nigh unto such as call upon him in Truth Ioh. 4. 23. The hour is coming and now is when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth for the Father seeketh such to worship him Access to God may be had every where therefore let us come 2. By whom we come by Jesus Christ Eph. 3. 12. In whom we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of him upon the account of his Merit and Intercession We should come without fear or doubt to him de facto as if his blood were running afresh 3. How we come with a true heart Heb. 10. 22. Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith having an heart sprinkled from an evil Conscience and our bodies washed with pure water SERMON CLXX PSALM CXIX VER 152. Concerning thy Testimonies I have known of old that thou hast founded them for ever IN this Verse is a further Illustration of the last Clause of the former he had said there thy Commandments are ipsissima veritas now he amplyfieth that saying from Gods Ordination and Appointment Concerning thy testimonies I have known of old that thou hast founded them for ever The Prophet ends this Octonary and Paragraph with some triumph of Faith and after all his Conflicts and Requests to God goeth away with this Assurance that Gods word should be infallibly accomplished as being upon his own experience of unchangeable and unerring certainty Two things you may observe in the Words First The constant and eternal Verity of Gods Testimonies Thou hast founded them for ever Secondly Davids Attestation to it I have known of old that it is so What the Word of God is in itself and then what is the Opinion of the Believer concerning it 1. What the Scriptures are in themselves 1. For their Nature they are Gods Testimonies or the significations of his Will 2. For their Stability they are Founded there is a great Emphasis in that word and that by God thou hast founded them 3. For their Duration and everlasting Use in that word for ever of an Eternal Use and Comfort II. Davids Attestation or Perswasion of this I have known of old I here observe 1. His Perswasion 2. The date and standing of his Perswasion it was ancient I have known of old 1. His Perswasion I have known there is a twofold Knowledge the Knowledge of Faith and the Knowledge of Sense both agree with the words 1. The Knowledge of Faith I know that my Redeemer lives that is I believe it what we read concerning thy Testimonies other Translations read by thy Testimonies I have known by thy Testimonies the Septuagint 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 have been perswaded of this by thy Spirit out of the word it self 2. The Knowledge of Sense and Experience I my self have known by sundry Experiences heretofore which I shall never forget 2. The Date and Ancientness of this Perswasion of old it was not a late Perswasion or a thing that he was now to learn he always knew it since he knew any thing of God that God had owned his Word as the constant Rule of his proceedings with Creatures in that God had so often made good his Word to him not only by present and late but old and ancient Experiences Well then Davids perswasion of the Truth and Unchangeableness of the Word was not a sudden humour or a present fit or a perswasion of a few days standing but he was confirmed in it by long Experience one or two Experiences had been no Tryal of the Truth of the Word they might seem but a good hit
Sin Oh that men did regard this as they ought considering that to despise Commandments is to despise the Lord himself and what it is for poor Worms to despise the God of Heaven and Earth Nay that God that is our Judge He hath power to cast both Body and Soul into Hell Fire the God whom we are bound by so many Ties to Obey 2. When swayed by Delight and Profit against the Course of our Duty Esau sold his Birth-right to keep him alive yet despised it Gen. 29. 31. And Heb. 12. 16. 3. The Case is more aggravated when we cast a Precept behind our Backs for a light Pleasure or small Profit the greater is our Contempt to break with God for a little Trifle sell the Righteous for a pair of shoes Use. II. Is to press us to get this blessed frame of heart to stand in Awe of the Word 1. 'T is a great curb in actual Temptations Gen. 39. 9. How then can I do this great wickedness and sin against God 2. 'T is a great help in Reading and Hearing Acts 10. 33. Now therefore we are all present before God to hear all things that are commanded thee of God 3. A great help in Humiliation and suing out our Pardon Psal. 130. 3 4. If thou shouldest mark iniquity who could stand but there is forgiveness with thee that thou mayest be feared For Means to get this Awful frame of Heart 1. Faith is necessary sundry Articles of Religion have influence upon it Gods Power Matth. 10. 28. Fear not them that can kill the body but fear him that can cast both body and soul into hell fire God's Providence that he observeth humane Affairs and accordingly doth Reward and Punish Hos. 7. 2. And they consider not in their hearts that I remember all their wickedness now their doings have beset them about before my face And Heb. 2. 2. And every transgression and every disobedience received a just recompence of reward A day of Judgment Rom. 2. 5. But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up wrath against the day of wrath and the revelation of the righteous judgment of God Eternal recompences of Heaven and Hell or the state of the World to come Those who believe not these things are bold and venturous and out of a daring Confidence will put it to the Trial whose Word shall stand Gods or theirs Ier. 44. 28. And all the remnant of Iudah that are gone into the Land of Egypt to sojourn there shall know whose word shall stand mine or theirs which shall be fulfilled or made good Heb. 11. 8. By faith Noah being warned of God of things not seen as yet being moved with fear prepared an ark to the saving of his house 2. Love is necessary for Reverence ariseth from Love David was afraid to displease so good a God to whom bound by so many Ties Surely Love breedeth a greater tenderness than a bare sense of danger Hos. 3. 5. Fear the Lord and his goodness That which maketh a wicked man presumptuous maketh a Child of God Awful he hath to do with a good God and therefore would not offend him nor cross his Will 3. An humble penitent Spirit is necessary for this frame of Heart Iosiah when he heard the words of the Law he rent his Clothes 2 Kings 22. 11 19. Because thy hâ—…rt was tender and thou humbledst thy self before the Lord when thou heardest what I spake against this place I have heard thee saith the Lord. And 2 Chron. 34. 27. Because thy heart was tender c. Troubled at Gods Anger to some nothing is of less Consideration with them 4. A good stock of Knowledge or frame of Divine Truths Psal. 119. 11. Thy word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against thee Prov. 6. 21 22. Bind them continually upon thy heart and tye them about thy neck when thou goest it shall lead thee when thou sleepest it shall keep thee and when thou wakest it shall talk with thee A Treasure of knowledge not only got by heart but impressed on us by his Spirit the great New-Covenant-blessing Heb. 8. 10. is Gods Law written upon the Heart by the finger of the Spirit as before on Tables of stone on the directive and imperative powers the Heart and Mind and this maketh us conformable to it in Heart and Life Gods Law is said to be in the Heart of the Godly that maketh them willing to obey Psal. 40. 8. His law is in my heart Tender to offend Psal. 37. 31. The law of God is in his heart none of his steps shall slide He loveth what is commanded and hateth what is forbidden he hath a sense of it to keep from usual guilt 5. Advised Consideration and Watchfulness Let thine eyes look right on and thine eye-lids streight before thee ponder the path of thy feet and let all thy wayes be established When you are about to do any thing examine and consider it whether God alloweth it yea or no Will it please or displease honour or dishonour God If he disallow forbear how safe profitable or comfortable soever it be if he allow it then engage this holy Fear must never be laid aside Phil. 2. 12. Work out your salvation with fear and trembling 1 Pet. 1. 17. Pass the time of your sojourning here in fear SERMON CLXXVI PSALM CXIX VER 1â—…2 I Rejoice at Thy Word as one that findeth great Spoil IN the Text First An Assertion or Declaration of his delight in the Word I Rejoice at Thy Word Secondly An Illustration of it by a Similitude taken from those who have gotten some notable Prey and Booty as one that findeth great Spoil First The Similitude is very expressive taken from the joy which a Conquerour in Battel doth find in the Spoil of his defeated Enemies The same similitude is used Isaiah 9. 3. They joy before thee according to the joy in Harvest as men rejoice when they divide the Spoil He speaketh there of the highest joy in a time of Peace joy of the harvest is the greatest joy In a time of Warr victory obtained after an hazardous Fight and rich spoil and booty gotten to heighten that joy several circumstances concur 1. Deliverance after a doubtful conflict No man goeth to War but carryeth his life in his hands and the event is very uncertain now when 't is unexpectedly determined on our side there is great rejoycing 2. The joy of victory especially to be victorious in a Battel 3. There is Booty and Spoil whereby men are enriched and so profit as well as pleasure 4. The joy of Honour and Triumph over faln Enemies 5. Peace and Ease from toil All these make the joy of victorious men in a Battel to be a great joy Secondly 'T was a fit similitude for David to use who was a great Warrior and so a man not unacquainted with the joy of victory A gracious heart spiritualizeth every occasion that falleth out in their ordinary
God yea the very Deed of praising him 5. Partly Because temporal favours may be given in Anger but the graces of the Spirit are never given in Anger God may give an Estate in Judgment and indulge large pastures to Beasts fitted for destruction but he giveth not an inlightened Mind and a renewed Heart in Anger 't is a token of his special love To you 't is given to know the misteries of the Kingdom of God Mat. 13. 11. Well then for all these things should we praise God We have a quick sense in bodily Mercies but in Soul concernments we are not alike affected IV. That among spiritual Blessings Divine Illumination is a very great gift and accordingly should be acknowledged by us To make this evident I shall 1. Open the nature of this Divine Illumination 2. Shew you the worth of it and how much it should be valued by us 1. For the Nature of it There is a twofold Wisdom and Knowledge of Divine Misteries 1. One which is only a gift 1 Cor. 8. 1. We know that we all have knowledge knowledge puffeth up but charity edifieth This is an excellent gift but yet it floweth from the common influence of the Spirit and puffeth up the party because 't is apprehended only such an excellency as conduceth to the Interests of the flesh and to attain esteem in the World and because he hath not thereby a deep and piercing knowledge of his Misery but is cold and weak and doth not warm the heart with love to the thing known therefore we should see to it what kind of knowledge we have whether it be a gift or a grace whether we use it to exalt God or our selves the bare gift puffeth us up with a lofty Conceit of our selves and a disclain of others but grace keepeth us humble for the more we know that way the more we see our defects and what little reason we have to glory in our knowledge or any other grace and besides by it we are suitably affected to what we know 2. There is a special knowledge of Divine Mysteries wrought in us by the special and sanctifying work of the Holy-Ghost this is the wisdom which cometh from above which is first pure and then peaceable Iam. 3. 17. which humbleth the man that hath it for the more he knoweth of God the more his own opinion and estimation of himself is lessened Iob 42. 5 6. I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear but now mine eye seeth thee therefore I abhor my self and repent in dust and ashes I have spoken unadvisedly of God This knowledge also maketh him serious and is operative upon the heart and worketh love to the thing known Ioh. 4. 10. If thou knewest the gift c. and maketh us to know God in Christ so as to acknowledge him and give him due Honour Respect and Reverence 'T is a knowledge joined with oblectation and affection This knowledge is considerable as to its beginning and increase 1 Its beginning the first removing of the natural blindness and darkness of our understandings so that we have a clear discerning of the things of God when the Scales fall from our eyes Naturally we were ignorant of God and the way to heaven but now brought to the saving knowledge of God in Christ we are acquainted with both The first Creature which God made was light so in the new Creation the new Creature is illuminated with an heavenly light and cured of its former blindness that we see things in another manner than ever we saw them before 1 Pet. 2. 9. Called out of darkness into his marvellous light as a man brought out of a dark Dungeon into an open Light And Acts 26. 18. To open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God So Eph. 5. 8. Ye were sometimes darkness but now light in the Lord. To be seeing is better than to be blind to be in light than to be in darkness This is Gods first work and it is marvellous in our eves 't is double when we first begin to have a clear knowledge of our own misery Rev. 3. 18. Whereas before we lived in gross ignorance of our own condition So when we begin to see the remedy as well as our Misery 2 Cor. 4. 6. God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness hath shined in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Iesus Christ The first thing that God convinceth us off is our own Sin Guilt and Misery So that those things that either we knew not or did swim loose in the Brain we begin now to be affected with them We talked before of sin as a thing of course and were wont to marvel why men-kept such a deal ado about sin but now the case is altered God hath opened his eyes and therefore he complaineth of it as the greatest burden and fain would be rid of it at any rate He beginneth to seek after Christ as his only remedy and nothing will satisfie him but Christ and all things are but dung and dross in comparison of the excellency of Christ and that he may be found in him He lamenteth his case and can trust himself no where but in Christs hands a natural man slippeth into an heedless credulity and either doth not look upon the Gospel as a real truth or else is not affected with it so as to venture his Salvation in that bottom 2 As to the increase and progress and so those that are taught of God need to be taught of God again and to seek a further increase of spiritual Wisdom or a further degree of the saving knowledge of Divine Misteries As the Apostle prayeth for the Ephesians towards whom he acknowledgeth God had abounded in all Wisdom and Prudence yet prayeth that God would give them the Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation that the eyes of their Understandings might be opened Eph. 1. 17 18. with the 8th verse we are yet ignorant in many things for we know but in part not fully rooted in the knowledge of these things which we know they need to be refreshed with new illumination from God that our knowledge may be active and lively and stand out against new and daily Temptations And that oblivion and forgetfulness which is a kind of ignorance and is apt ever and anon to creep upon us may be prevented and Truths may be ready at hand for our use Iam. 1. 5. And this is that which David beggeth an increase of knowledge for he being an holy man and a Prophet needed not the first illumination and every degree is a great favour to be acknowledged with praise Secondly Let me speak of the worth of this Divine Illumination in its self the worth of it appeareth in four things I. Its Author God by his efficacious teaching doth cure the blindness of our minds and doth open and incline our
hearts towards spiritual and heavenly things Ioh. 6 45. They shall all be taught of God 1 Thes. 4. 10. Ye your selves are taught of God to love one another 1 Ioh. 2. 27. The anointing teacheth you all things As the Heathen Cato would have none to teach his Son but himself for he said that Instruction was such a benefit that he would not have his Son beholding to none for it but himself Oh 't is a blessed priviledge to be taught of God! to be made wise to Salvation and not only to get an ear to hear but an heart to understand and learn by hearing not only the power to Believe but the very Act of Faith itself Gods teaching is always effectual not only directive but perswasive inlightening the mind to know and inclining the Will and Affections to imbrace what we know he writeth the truth upon the heart and puts it into the mind Heb. 8. 10. He sufficiently propoundeth the Object and rectifieth the Faculty imprints the Truth upon the very Soul But how doth God teach in the very place where Christ speaketh of our being taught of God he presently addeth Ioh. 6. 46. Not that any man hath seen the Father Gods teaching doth not import that any man must see God and immediately Converse with him and talk with God and so be taught by him no God teacheth externally by his Word and internally by the Spirit but yet so powerfully and effectually that the Lesson is learned and deeply imprinted upon our Souls this teaching is often expressed by seeing now to a clear sight three things concur an Object conspicuous a perspicuous Medium and a well disposed Organ or clear Eye in Gods teaching there is all these The Object to be seen plainly in the Scriptures are the things of God not Fancies but Realities and by the light of the Spirit represented to us and the Eye of the Mind opened A blind man cannot see at mid-day nor the most clear-sighted at midnight when objects lye hidden under a vail of darkness the object must be revealed and brought nigh to us in a due light and God secretly openeth the eye of the Soul that we see heavenly things with Life and Affection The Author then sheweth the Mercy when God will not only teach us by Men but by his Spirit II. The Objects known the highest and most important matters in the World the gracious Soul is savingly acquainted with 't is more to have the knowledge of the profoundest Sciences then of some poor and low employment as Themistocles said to know a little of true Philosophy is more than to know how to play upon a fiddle But now to have the saving knowledge of God and of the life to come is more than to have the most admired Wisdom of the Flesh than all the Common Learning in the World and therefore how much are we bound to praise God if he will teach us his Statutes more than if we knew how to govern Kingdoms and Common-wealths and to do the greatest business upon Earth Two things do commend the object of this knowledge 1. It is conversant about the most high and excellent things 2. The most necessary and useful things 1. Things of so high a nature as to know God who is the cause of all things and Jesus Christ who is the restorer of all things and the Spirit who cherisheth and preserveth all things especially to know his heavenly operations and the nature and acting of his several Graces Ier. 9. 24. Let him that glorieth glory in this that he knoweth me saith the Lord. There is the excellency of a man to know God to conceive aright of his Nature Attributes and Works so as to Love Trust Reverence and Serve him Alas all other knowledge is a poor low thing to this God hath written a book to us of himself as Caesar wrote his own Commentaries and by Histories and Prophesies hath set forth himself to us to be the Creatures Creator Preserver Deliverer and Glorifier This is the Knowledge we should seek after common Craft teach us how to get bread but this book teacheth us how to get the Kingdom of heaven to get the bread of Life the meat that perisheth not Law preserveth the Estates and Testaments of Men but this the Testament of God the Charter of our eternal Inheritance Physick cureth the Diseases of the Body this afflicted Minds and distempered Hearts Natural Philosophy raiseth up men to the contemplation of Nature this of the Maker of all things and Author of Nature History the Rise and Ruine of Kingdoms States and Cities this the Creation and Consummation of the World Rhetorick to stir the Affection this to inkindle Divine Love Poetry moveth natural delight here Psalms that we may delight in God These are the only true and sublime things as Light is pleasant to the Eye so is Knowledge to the Mind but where have you the knowledge of such high things what are the mysteries of Nature to the mysteries of Godliness to know the Almighty living God and to behold his Wisdom Goodness and Power in all his Works surely this is a sweet and pleasant thing to a gracious soul but especially to know him in Christ to know the Mistery of the Incarnation Person Natures and Mediation of Christ. 1 Tim. 3. 16. Great is the mistery of Godliness This is a mistery without Controversie great to know the Law and Covenant of God Deut. 4. 6. This is your wisdom and understanding in the sight of the nations who shall hear these statutes And the sanctifying work of the Holy-Ghost by which we are wrought and prepared for everlasting Life 2. So necessary and useful to know the way of Salvation the Disease and Remedy of our Souls our Danger and the Cure our Work and our Wages the business of Life and our End what is to be believed and practiced what we are to enjoy and do these are the things which concern us all other knowledge is but curious and speculative and hath more of pleasure than of Profit To know our own Affairs our greatest and most necessary Affairs these are the things we should busie our selves about 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 One thing is necessary Luk. 10. 42. Other things we may well spare Now what is necessary but to know our Misery that we may prevent it our Remedy that we may look after it in time our Work and Business that we may perform it our End that we intend it and be incouraged by it What course we must take that we may be everlastingly happy Well then if God will shew us what is good Mich. 6. 8. and teach us what is good that we may know whither we are a going and which way we must go if he will give us Counsel in our reins to choose him for our portion Psal. 16. 5. We ought to bless his name So the 11th Verse Thou wilt shew me the path of Life though ignorant of other things we are
highly obliged for this discovery 't is the work of God to give us Counsel and should be matter of perpetual Thanksgiving to us III. The Use for which this knowledge serveth 1. To entertain Communion with God for the present for by knowing him we come to enjoy him Psal. 17. 15. As for me I will behold thy face in rightcousness I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy likeness that 's more than to have a portion in this World And 1 Ioh. 1. 3. That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you that ye also may have fellowship with us and truely our fellowship is with the father and his son Iesus Christ. By Communion or Fellowship is not meant a society of Equals but the dutiful yet chearful attendance of an Inferiour on his Superiour the Creature on his Creator but yet so as that there is an holy intimacy and familiarity in it because we both love and are beloved of God in every Ordinance they draw nearer to God than others do for 1 Ioh. 1. 7. If we walk in the light as he is in the light we have fellowship one with another All our Duties are the Converse of a sanctified Creature with an holy God and an humble Creature dealing with the blessed God for a supply of all their wants They pour out their Souls to him and he openeth his Ear and Bosom unto them he teacheth them his way and they walk in his paths Isa. 2. 3. They walk in the Fear of his Name and the Comforts of his Spirit Acts 9. 31. they seek his Glory as their great End and live in the sense of his dearest love 2. To enjoy him for ever this is life eternal that they may know thee the only true God and Iesus Christ whom thou hast sent Ioh. 17. 3. Alas what is the knowing how to get Riches and Pleasures and the Vain-glory of the World to this Surely you that are taught of God your business is above other Mens while they drive on no greater Trade than providing for the Flesh or feathering a Nest that will quickly be pulled down they are providing for Everlasting Glory and Happiness They aim at nothing beyond this Life all their Cares are confined within the narrow bounds of Time and the compass of this World but these look higher and begin a life which shall be perfected in Heaven they are laying up treasure in Heaven IV. The manner of knowing things when taught of God they see things with greater Clearness and Certainty and Efficacy and Power 1. With greater Clearness Others know Words but they know Things and therefore know as they ought to know them They know the Grace of God in Truth Col. 1. 6. They have the spiritual discerning and that is a quite different thing from a literal discerning 1 Cor. 2. 14. He hath an experimental and sweeter knowledge than learned men that are ungodly He hath tasted that the Lord is Gracious the sweetness of his Love and the riches of his Grace in Christ. The Theory of Divine Knowledge though never so exact giveth us not this they have more of the Words and Notions but less of the thing itself they have the sign the other the thing signified they break the shell and the other eats the kernel they dress the meat but the others feed upon and digest it dig in the Mines of knowledge as Negroes but others have the Gold A rotten post may support a living Tree 2. With more Certainty There is a great deal of difference between taking up Religion out of Inspiration and out of Opinion or Tradition Faith is the gift of God but Credulity is received by the Report of Men. Men may guess at the truth by their own Wit they may talk of it by rote and according to what they read and hear from others but Divine Knowledge is the fruit of the Spirit Matth. 16. 17. Flesh and bloud hath not revealed these things unto thee but my Father which is in heaven Ioh. 4. 42. Now we believe not because of thy saying but we have heard him our selves and know indeed that this is the Christ the Saviour of the World And 1 Thes. 1. 5. For our Gospel came to you not in word only but in power and the Holy Ghost and in much assurance We never apprehend the Truth with any certainty nor can we discern Gods Impress on the Word but in the light of the Spirit Gods Illumination maketh our knowledge of things certain and infallible Know 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 assuredly Acts 2. 36. Ioh. 17. 8. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 'T is not a may be a bare possibility or likely to be a probability but it is sure to be and will be so a certainty that belongeth to Faith 3. For Efficacy and Power 1 Thes. 1. 5. For our Gospel came to you not in word only but in power and in the Holy Ghost Stephen a man full of faith and of the Holy Ghost Acts 6. 5. We are affected with the Truths we know yea transformed and changed by them 2 Cor. 3. 18. Changed into a Divine Nature 1 Pet. 1. 4. Our hearts are moulded and fitted for God and for every good work So that this is a benefit should be much acknowledged Use. I. Is to Inform us how the Saints do and should esteem this benefit of Divine Illumination In this Psalm they esteem it more than if God should bestow a great deal of wealth upon them See Psal. 119. 14. I rejoice in the way of thy Testimonies more than in all riches And 72 Verse More than thousands of gold and silver Once more they think themselves well a paid if they get it by sharp Afflictions though by loss of Health or Wealth Verse 71. It s good for me that I have been afflicted that I might learn thy statutes The reason is because they value it as a Mercy for which they can never enough be thankful Phil. 3. 8. Yea doubtless and I count all things to be loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Iesus my Lord for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and do count them but dung that I may win Christ The People of God have no reason to envy others that live in the Pomp of the World and the splendor of outward accommodations if he give them the saving knowledge of himself Prov. 3. 31 32. Envy not the oppressor and choose none of his wayes for the froward is an abomination to the Lord but his secret is with the righteous If God will teach us his Statutes though he keepeth us low 't is more to be one of Gods Disciples to be owned by him in an Ordinance than to live a Life of Pomp and Ease Secondly None are fit to praise God but those whom God hath taught Psal. 50. 16. What hast thou to do to declare my statutes or that thou shouldest take my covenant into thy mouth The new song and the old heart
do ill agree together but when God hath framed our hearts to Obedience then is praise comely in our Mouths Use. II. Is to direct us 1. How to pray for spiritual Grace if we would obtain it the Glory of God is the end of all Grace vouchsafed to us with this end must pray to God for it The end of our Petitions and Requests to God should be that we may be inabled to praise God then we seek God for God much more when we ask spiritual grace To ask temporal benefits to consume upon our Lusts is very bad and the ready way to bespeak our selves a denial Iames 4. 3. Ye ask and receive not because you ask amiss that you may consume it upon your lusts much more to ask spiritual gifts for our Lusts sake to beg God to open our Mouths to shew forth our own praises rather than his or knowledge to advance our selves as 't is a greater indignity to void our Excrements in a Cup of Gold for a Princes own drinking than in a Common Utensil Besides it sheweth our value of the Benefit to think of praise before we have obtained is Eph. 1. 6. To the praise of his glorious grace wherein he hath made as accepted in the beloved 2. It must be used and improved to that end when we have obtained we must not be proud of any spiritual gift but lay our Crown at Gods Feet 1 Cor. 4. 7. Who made thee to differ and what hast thou that thou hast not received We pervert the end of the end when we are puffed up and give shrewd suspition that 't is a common gift not saving grace when we are puffed up with it Use. III. Is Exhortation to press you to glorifie God and praise him if he hath given you any knowledge of himself and of the way of Salvation 1. This is Gods end in bestowing his Grace that in word and deed we should be to the praise of his glorious grace 1 Pet. 2. 9. That ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light 2. You were as indocile and unteachable as others only God made the difference Iob 11. 12. For vain man would be wise though man be born like the wild asses colt Ier. 31. 18. Like a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke And therefore the Glory must intirely redound to him You might have perished as a witless Fool and gone to Hell as others do but that God gave you Counsel 3. 'T is the way to increase it Col. 2. 7. Rooted and built up in him and established in the faith as ye have been taught abounding therein with thanksgiving Thanksgiving for what we have received is an effectual means to make us constant grow and abound in every grace Let the people praise thee O God yea let all the people praise thee Psal. 67. 3. Look as the Vapours go up so the showers come down Experiences of former Mercies thankfully acknowledged draweth down more Mercy 4. Prayer necessarily inferreth praise Phil. 4. 6. In every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God Blessing God for Favours already received is necessary to be joyned with Prayer 't is disingenuous to be alwayes Craving and never give Thanks be thankful and depend for more not alwayes pore upon wants but take a survey of your Mercies and that will not only enlarge your hearts in thankfulness but even invite God to bestow further Mercies SERMON CLXXXV PSALM CXIX VER 172. My tongue shall speak of thy Word for all thy Commandments are Righteousness THE Man of God had spoken in the former Verse how his lips should praise God here is his second Promise that he maketh of holy Conference with others In the words we have First Davids Resolution My tongue shall speak of thy Word Secondly The Reason because it contained matter that deserved to be spoken off For all thy Commandments are righteousness 1. He speaketh of the whole Word of God all thy commandments 2. In the Abstract are righteousness altogether Righteous and Faithful First From the first branch Davids Resolution My tongue shall speak of thy Word Observe Doctrine The Subject of a Believers ordinary Discourse should be the Word and those spiritual and heavenly matters contained therein I. Not that they are alwayes talking of these things there is a time for all things the business of our Calling will sometimes take us up and sometimes our Recreations but yet there should be generally a difference between us and others the People of God should be observantly different as to their words and discourse from other People Cant. 4. 11. Thy lips O my Spouse drop as the honycomb The Lips of Christs Spouse should flow with matter savory and useful So Prov. 10. 20 21. The tongue of the just is as choice Silver but the heart of the wicked is little worth The lips of the righteous feed many but fools die for want of wisdom Where the speech of the righteous is compared to silver of the wicked to Dross For because their heart is little worth their Discourse will be accordingly and then the good man is compared to one that keepeth open house that feedeth all those that resort to him but Fools do not only not feed others but perish themselves by their own folly So Prov. 15. 7. The lips of the wise disperse knowledge but the heart of the foolish doth not so Men usually Discourse as their hearts are a man of a frothy spirit will bring forth nothing but vain and frothy Discourse but a gracious man will utter holy and gracious things for the Tap runneth according to the Liquor with which the Vessel is filled One place more Psal. 37. 30 31. The mouth of the righteous speaketh wisdom and his tongue talketh of judgment the law of God is in his heart none of his steps shall slide All mens Discourses are vented according as their hearts are busied and affected A man that hath the Word of God rooted in his heart and maketh it his work to suit his Actions thereunto will also suit his Words thereunto and will edifie those that he speaketh unto Thoughts Words and Actions are the genuine Products and Issues of the Heart Grace in the Heart discovereth it self uniformly in all holy Thoughts holy Words and holy Actions otherwise their Conversation is not all of a piece All these places shew that a Christians Discourse will differ from other mens but alas our Conference is little different from ordinary mens II. More Particularly I shall shew you that we are not left to run at random in our ordinary discourse as if our Tongues were our own to speak what we please This I shall shew 1. Negatively 2. Positively 1. Negatively no Prophane no Idle Discourse 1. No Prophane Discourse Eph. 4. 29. Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth Christians are accountable for their Words as well as Actions Quest.
deliver his people from them p. 560 561 562 Property of wicked men to be plotting mischief 738 Plotting mischief exceeding sinful on many accounts Ibid. Policy Civil policy is not opposed by Christs Kingdom and liberty of Gospel-worship p. 144 Popery three grand evils in it 1. Universal Soveraignty 2. Absolute Supremacy 3. Infallibility p. 203 204 Portion of believers is full lasting sure Sure because 1. Confirmed by Gods word and Oath 2. Cannot be wrested from them by violence 3. Shall not be wasted by their own prodigality p. 743 744 Portion of believers is not in this life p. 867 Portion a double notion of the word p. 381 God alone is the godly mans portion p. 382 383 384 385 386 387 388. Whether God be our portion p. 389 Power and faithfulness oft engaged for desence p. 790 Power of Gods word is wonderful in what respects p. 884 885 Power 1. Natural 2. Moral from God p 308 Power of God seen 1. In preserving his Saints in dangers 2. In over-ruling all accidents for their benefit p. 729. Seen in Providence p. 368 369 370 Practise the end of giving forth the word as a light 690 Practice the end of all teaching p. 231 Practice without it the hearing knowing liking of the word are nothing p. 10. 41. 318 319. 690 To approve love delight in commend c. Gods ways without practice profits nothing p. 318 219. 452. 690 691 Practical holiness the way to encrease in spiritual understanding p. 656. why Ibid. 657 Practical knowledg is 1. Directive 2. Perswasive p. 173 Prayer of faith is the voice of Gods Spirit p. 326 Prayer and faith must be conjoined p. 790. 904. 923 Faith set on work in prayer p. 317. 514 Prayer oftentimes a better Vindication of our innocency than an Apology p. 136 An excellent mean to persevere p. 789 790 It 's a duty proper to the best of Christians p. 535 It 's excellencies p. 12. Private and publick prayer p. 921 It supposes our impotency emptiness c. p. 29 It is an excellent remedy against pride p. 521 Prayer doubled argues great sense of sin and mercy p. 515 Prayers sluggish p. 29. 899. Prayer must be join'd with hearing p. 57. Vid. Sincere prayer With purposes of better obedience p. 919. Reasons Ibid. We must be the same out of prayer that we are in prayer p. 904. Vid. Business We must be more affectionate in prayer for Heavenly and spiritual than earthly things p. 904 Precepts must be turn'd into prayer p. 28 Fit matter for prayer p. 479 How we may know whether what we pray for come from the temper of the heart in four particulars p. 479 In what manner we are to pray p. 480. 909 923 What are the grounds of prayer p. 480 It must be continued under the sorest afflictions 716 Praise unseemly in a wicked mans mouth p. 43 Praise belongs to God especially for his loving-kindness p. 940 Praise and Blessing how they differ p. 70. 1014 Why we are so backward to praises p. 1019 Praise and faith live and die together p 420 Matter of praise p. 1016 1017 Praises continue in Heaven p. 42. 1014 Praising God a profitable duty p. 445. 1015 Praising God 1. The Nature 2. The Grounds 3. The Formality 4 The fruit of it p. 1014 1015. Motives to it p. 1015 We must not cease to praise God p. 1016 1017 1018 Precepts Gods precepts must be turned into prayer-28 Vid. Commandments Testimonies Statutes c. Precepts of God to chuse them implys 1. Deliberation 2. Esteem 3. Inclination 4. Resolution 5. Delight p. 1071 1072 Reasons why they are to be chosen p. 1073 Preachers Teachers c. are to preach Gods Word only and wholly p. 77 Predominant sin p. 19 Prodominant love to Gods Commandments p. 1048 1049 Prejudice against God removed by consideration of his Goodness p. 474 Prejudice one great cause of Persecution p. 144 Prejudices lye more directly against the means of Salvation than Salvation it self p. 2 Why men are prejudiced against Holiness p. 70 How to remove prejudices p. 304 Prejudices against Obedience answered by Gods Soveraignty p. 25 Prejudices cause discord amongst Gods people p. 528 They are a cause of error about the word p. 694 Prepared for all events and conditions wisdom p. 644 Prerogative of God to kill and make alive p. 1094 Present things not to be too mucâ—…â—…ored upon p. 546 Present state imperfect p. 1090 Preservation of life is to give 〈◊〉 our life twice over p. 1095 Presumption a rock to be shunned p. 47 48 It renders us incapable of grace and pardon p. 320 It forfeits Gods assisting grace p. 782 The discovery and cure of presumption p. 47 48 It 's a cause of error in judgment p. 694 Presence of God with us in our houses of clay and our Presence with God in the Mansions of glory the best comforts of a Christian p. 514 Pride makes Persecutors p. 517. 563 Discovery of Pride in three things 1. In envying those that are more excellent 2. In contending with Equals 3. In disdaining of Inferiors p. 520. 563 Cure of Pride by three things p. 521 Pride renders not to God according to his benetsfi p. 44 It is abated by the rigor of the first Covenant p. 15 Pride is either Moral or Spiritual p. 129 It is an enemy to knowledg p. 454 The worst sort of Pride to err wilfully from Gods Commandments p. 128 129 130 131 It opposes 1. The Authority 2. The power of God p. 130 It is discovered by impenitency and obstinacy p. 129 829 It is cured by reproach p. 138. 295 And by a sense of our own emptiness p. 243 Priests all Christians are Priests to God p. 721 722 723 Principal mercies promised absolutely others conditionally p. 510 Principles by which we are acted the most considerable thing in our actings p. 760. 791 Principles of Obedience true and false some rotten some less evil some tolerable some purely Evangelical p. 791 863 865 Principles evil 1. Example 2. Force from fear of God or men slavish 3. Bad Designes p. 1075 1076 Privilege and duty of the godly p. 918 919 837 Private prayer p. 921 Vid. Business Private spirit p. 9 Private Christians are to confer of not to preach Gods Word publickly p. 77 78 Whether they are to study Controversies and how far p. 196 Prize the Scriptures why p. 645 Profane persons who p. 1045 Profession of the truth twofold p. 306 Profession of Christianity upon terms of losses d. 415 It is necessary why in what manner how far p. 332 333 Profit by the word of God comes from the grace of God p. 72 And from owning the word as righteous and faithful p. 939 940 Progress of sin 303 Promises should be our delight before their accomplishment p. 081 Promises our encouragement in walking with God p. 6. 29 They go hand in hand with precepts p. 28. 742. 458. 338 They give more comforts than arguments drawn from
the Scriptures were written not for Ministers or professed Students God speaketh to all sorts of men in the Scripture and therefore would have all understand them He wrote the Scripture that it might be read of all young and old Deut. 30. 11 12. This Commandment which I command thee this day is not hidden from thee neither is it far off It is not in heaven that thou shouldest say Who shall go up for us to heaven and bring it to us that we may hear it and do it c. Rich and poor the King was to read in it all the days of his life Deut. 17. 18 19. It shall be that when he sitteth upon the Throne of his Kingdom he shall write him a Copy in a Book out of that which is before the Priests the Levites and it shall be with him and he shall read therein all the days of his life Every good man is to meditate in it Psal. 1. 2. His delight is in the Law of the Lord and in his Law doth he meditate day and night Deut. 6. 6 7. These words which I command thee this day shall be in thy heart and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy Children and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thy house and when thou walkest by the way and when thou liest down and when thou risest up The Apostles wrote Epistles to the whole Church spake to old men youth little Children 1 Iohn 2. 13. I write unto you Fathers because ye have known him that is from the beginning I write unto you young men because ye have overcome the wicked one I write unto you little Children because ye have known the Father To Kings Judges Men Women Husbands Wives Fathers Children Masters Servants was it written for their use nor must it be taken out of their hands nor is it above their reach 3. The end why it was written to be a sure and infallible direction to guide us to eternal life and make us wise unto salvation 2 Tim. 3. 15. And that from a Child thou hast known the holy Scriptures which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Iesus Not only so but it is our food and means of growth 1 Pet. 2. 2. As new born Babes desire the sincere milk of the Word that ye may grow thereby Every life hath food convenient for it It is our weapon in temptation Ephes. 6. 17. And take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit which is the word of God To be read by all in this spiritual warfare they are all engaged in It is Gods testament therefore should be viewed by his Children the Epistle of the Creator to his Creatures therefore to be read by them to whom it is sent Gods Letter must not be intercepted upon all these reasons There is enough to make wise the simple in Scriptures But is there nothing difficult in Scriptures Answ. Yes to subdue the pride of mans wit to quicken us to wait and depend upon him for knowledge to prevent contempt to exercise our industry and diligence and to fasten truths on our minds There is some difficulty but not such difficulty as that the people neither can nor ought to read them with profit which is the dispute between us and Papists There is no difficulty but what is conquerable by that Grace that God ordinarily dispenseth and the means of explaining or applying not a whole loaf but a dimensum his share for it distributes to every man his portion Use 1. For the confutation of them that forbid the simple the use of the word The Papists say Gods Word is dark and hard to be understood therefore they lock it up from the people in an unknown tongue as if none could profit by it but the learned sort Yea many among us are ready to say What should simple men do with Scripture and think all the confusions and troubles of the world come from giving people this liberty Answ. Though in the word there are mysteries to exercise the greatest Wits yet there are plain truths to edifie the simple This Text is a notable proof against them It is good to have a Text against every errour of theirs They are injurious to God as if he had revealed his mind so darkly or his word that it were so doubtful and harmful that there were danger in reading it injurious to the Scriptures while they tax them with obscurity injurious to the people of God while they despise those whom the Lord inviteth with their Pharisaical pride Iohn 7. 49. But this people who know not the Law are cursed hinder them of their comfort The simple have souls to save therefore have need to see with their own eyes to consider Gods Charter They pretend they do it in mercy to the people lest by their mistakes they should ruine themselves and introduce confusion into the world They should as well say All must be starved and deny meat and drink because some surfeit But certainly they do it for their own interest they have false Wares to vend and to keep the people from discovering the errours they impose upon them they would conceal the Scriptures from them Ignorance is a friend to the Devils Kingdom The blind go as they are led They are afraid of the Scriptures as a Thief of a Candle or the light which would discover his villany and hinder his design Iohn 3. 20. Use 2. Of encouragement to poor Christians that have a sense of weakness Before Plato's School was written Let none but the learned come in hither but Christ inviteth the simple that none might be discouraged he speaketh to all sorts Prov. 8. 4 5. Unto you O men I call and my voice is to the sons of men O ye simple understand wisdom and ye fools be of an understanding heart That which is spoken to all is thought to be spoken for none Christ speaketh to men under their several distinctions noble base young or old rich or poor If any earthly profit be offered to any that will take it who will exempt themselves None are so modest But in spiritual things persons are more stupid Let none be discouraged by weakness of parts all are invited to learn and here they may be taught of any capacity Oh! but how many will say I am so weak of understanding that I shall make no work of such deep mysteries as are contained in the Scriptures Answ. 1. Many times this objection cometh from a sluggish heart to ease themselves of the trouble of a duty as meditation or prayer they pretend weakness they would have a rule that would make knowledge 2. If it be serious God is able to interpret his own Book unto thee He must indeed open the door or we cannot get into the knowledge of truths there If you had better parts you would be but groping about the door He that hath not the right Key is as far from entring the