as Potters shreds with the Scepter of his Power USE That I may render these truths practicable and accommodate them to the use and benefit of this People give me leave to deal in all plainness and integrity As I would not give flattering words lest God should destroy me so neither would I designedly provoke or move any to anger except it be at his sins I shall therefore endeavour to speak words of truth and soberness and yet chuse rather to offend man than provoke the most high There are two Uses I have to suggest unto which I shal reduce those few words which I have to speak the one by way of Conviction the other of Exhortation 1. For Conviction Let us solemnly consider and rightly weigh whether or no those words which have been spoken against this Place and People on such occasions as this were not such words as God commanded those that delivered them to come and speak I must confess when I seriously look upon this People in their constitution Civil and Ecclesiastical molded in the one under wholsome Laws in the other under strict and sacred Covenants When I consider that the management of these is under the hands of Pious and Prudent Magistracy a godly and learned Ministry When I think how many there are whose hearts are upright with God and do not wickedly depart from his Covenant When I mind that by the very confession of unprejudiced strangers here is more of sobriety and honest conversation then almost in any place they have occasion to be conversant in It seems hard to believe that God who is full of Mercy and Pity who knows this frame of ours and minds that we are but dust should declare against us though many infirmities should appear in the midst of us And could be willing to think that all the warnings menaces which have been uttered by these or those were nothing else but the mistakes of an irregular though well minded zeal or the dumps and night visions of some melancholick spirits and thus indeed were the Prophets of old censured But when I throughly weigh all circumstances in an equal ballance I dare not but conclude that the Lord hath sent them to speak all these words What they have spoken is for the most part upon Record and commended to us in Print Wherein we are impeached for degenercy threatned with the Judgements of God if we amend not and thence solemnly advised and invited to Repent If they understood the mind of God then are we far from being safe and secure from eminent dangers I know they have been condemned by some contemned by many more scarcely believed by any if we are to take the evidence of mens faith by their works But if we shall ponder such things as these they may leave conviction behind them 1. They were the Lords faithful Watch-men who gave this Alarum Not men that came upon their own heads but were set up by the will of God to descry and give notice of his mind to his People And these are such as God is wont to make known his counsels to Amos 3. 7. Surely the Lord will do nothing but he revealeth his secrets to his Servants the Prophets They were such as truly feared God and would not dare to prophesie lyes in the name of the Lord. 2. They were such as loved and laboured for the peace and prosperity of this People Who could truly with the Prophet appeal to him who knows the heart that they desire not that woeful day Friends and not Enemies to our Zion who loved and stood up for the way of these Churches who prayed for the peace of our Jerusalem Who mourned in secret for the sins of the land and to their ability strongly endeavoured to stop the course of them and to prevent the eruptions of God's Wrath Who preached the displeasure of God with pitty and compassion entreating and encouraging to Repentance 3. They delivered not these messages without many heavy pangs and throes upon their own spirits This roll was bitter to them and with a great deal of reluctancy and unwillingness did they declare themselves I my self have heard some of them expressing what Combats what Wrestlings they have had in their own minds how loth to speak how fearful about their message how well they could have been content to enjoy the good-will of the People and how greatly unwilling they were to be an occasion of adding to the guilt of those that had already run too deep on account with God And could they have so satisfied their own consciences and been clear of blood would have altogether held their peace Yea sometimes had said as the Prophet Chap. 20. 9. I will not make mention of him nor speak any more in his Name 4. There hath been great harmony and concurrence in these Testimonies It hath not been the voice only of one or two but such things have been told us from year to year And though God may put a lying spirit into four hundred false Prophets yet he is not wont so to deceive his own servants If they all are misled what shall we do or where shall we seek for the Word of the Lord or would not that it self be a clear evidence of Gods great displeasure against his People if it be indeed arrived at this that there is no Prophet nor any one that can tell how long 5. God himself hath sealed the truth of their warnings with many awful Providences The language wherof had there been no interpreter hath spoken his anger with clearest demonstration The Rod hath spoken as well as the Word and every Rod hath come after such solemn Words of warning as have been too generally entertained in the quality of tales and falshoods And if God hath in part accomplished the predictions of his servant may we not rationally and Religiously Judge that the remainder shall have their time of accomplishment too except we shall attend to the due means of prevention 6. The Grounds and Reasons of these threatnings are found in the midst of us They have not only declared the anger of an holy and jealous God but also drawn up our indictment and entered God's Plea against us and fully answered all our reasons of appeal They have shewn Judah their Transgressions and the house of Jacob their Sins yea such sins as according to the word of God that rule of procedure between him and his People are found to be incentives of Divine displeasure such as raise up God's jealousie and kindle his anger against those that are so found guilty of them Nor yet have they done this of their own meer surmize But 7. We have at least verbally acknowledged a Judgement in many yea the most if not all which they have charged us withal Witness the proposed grounds for many days of fasting issued out from those who stand as the representatives of this People Witness the confessions and acknowledgments which have been on such dayes made
Countenance those inward supports of heart that sweet communion which their Souls have with God in an Ordinance in hearing the Word at a Sacrament in their Closets on their knees powring out of their Prayers and tears into the bosom of their Father Those holy transports are riddles and matters of laughter and scorn to them and if they know not what is how should they understand that which is to come 3. The Children of God themselves whiles they are here do not fully know what they shal be it doth not yet appear to them It is true 1. The Word of God hath said a great deal concerning their future Glory There are many high and towring expressions to our apprehension used in the Scripture worthy descriptions of that great City and the Inhabitants of it and if we would study the Scripture more we might know more of it But yet when we arrive at the Kingdom and come once to see and view and experience it we shal say as the Queen Sheba to Solomon 1 King 10. 6 7. 2. The People of God have their sips and foretastes and first fruits of this Glory here They are made to tast of those Graps of which the Wine is made in Canaan They have not only their assurances but also sometimes their extasies They are taken into the Mount rapt up into the third Heaven their souls are lifted up aboue the world and all that is in it God is pleased at some times to carry them out so farr in their meditations and reveal so much of himself and his infinit love to their contemplation that they are loth to come down or to have any thing more to do with the sink and puddle of this world They know so much of that after state that when they are under these precious discoveries and the irradiations of the spirit of God upon their souls they cry out Who will give me the wings of a Dove that I might mount up and be gone And with Paul their hearts are carried forth with a longing desire to depart and be with him in full possession of all this Glory But 3. A full clear and manifest discovery of their happiness is not made to any of God's People here They that have seen most of heaven while upon this earth have seen it but â—â— Landskip They that have had the most ravishing tasts of the love of God have but imperfectly tasted it All our knowledge all our sight here is but in part 1 Cor. 13. 9. We know but in part That which is pâ—â—fect is yet to come vers 10. The are but dawnings at the most which we have here what those rayes will be which shal beam forth from the Sun of Righteousness in the mid-day splendour of Celestial Glory we now cannot tell but must be content to wait till we go thither where it is to be seen and enjoyed 2. For the ground of the Doctrine or reason why it doth not yet appear 1. God makes it not known to the ungodly 1. Lest they should be allured by it All which they hear and enjoy here must therefore be Aenigmatical or obscure to them lest they should be converted it is an awful word but Christ himself hath spoken it who knew his Fathers and his own mind and purpose Mar. 4. 11. 12. To them that are without these things are done in parables c. Lest at any time they should be Converted 2. That they may by Persecutions and oppositions try the Graces of his Children There is great use and fruit in this tryal it is more precious than that of Gold And God is pleased to use wicked men as instruments of the tryal And hence they shall not know who these be nor what their Glory is for if they did they would without doubt suspend if not in love yet in fear of them Christ himself must come in a disguise that so the determined Counsel of God might be fulfilled iâ— him 1. Cor. 2. 7 8. They would else never have Crucified him 2. The reason also why the People of God themselves have no comprehensive discovery of their own future estate 1. Because it is too big a sight for their weak eyes to gaze upon They must be prepared for their Glory as well as their Glory for them or else it would swallow them up Rom. 9. 23. Hence When Christ is upon the one work in Heaven the Spirit of Christ is on the other here Should a full description of that state be given us it must be in a Language which we understand not They are but dark similitudes dim and dull comparisons accommodated to our own weak capacity which the Scripture affords The words which Paul then heard when he was in the third Heaven were ineffable words and such as were not lawful to utter 2 Cor. 12. 4. Not unlawful because forbidden by any precept but because they did out-bid his ability If the Glory to be revealed should now be revealed to us in this our imperfect state it would over oppress and sink us 2. That they may with more patience abide the time allotted then here and serve there Generation in the doing of that work which God hath set out for them to do before they go to be possessed of this Glory We find that after St. Paul's rapture he had great wrestlings with his own spirit and much ado to keep up in himself a willingness to tarry here any longer Phil. 1. 21. I am in a strait between two Having a desire to depart And such have been the frames of God's dear Children after that they have had some extraordinary beamings of his love and been feasted by him with some special visits they have been long ere they could quiet themselves from longing and praying that the Chain might be cut and they might hoise Sail and be gone Might the Saints be permitted to know here as much as shall be known hereafter it would be harder perswading them to be willing to live than it is now to make them willing to dy USE I. For informations learn we from Hence 1. The reason why the Children of God are so little regarded here in the World it is because the World knows not who they are nor what they are born unto Their great Glory for the present is within outwardly they look like other men they eat drink labour converse in earthly imployments as others do the communion which they have with God in all of these is a secret thing They are Sick Poor Naked Distressed like other men those in ward supports which they have under all those exercises are remote from publick view They dy and are buried under the Clods and their bodyes putrifie and rot like other men and none see those joyes that their souls are entred into nor that guard of Angels which comes as a Convoy and carryes them into Abraham's bosom Naâ— they have their sins their spots their imperfections and weaknesses here as well as other men but
a day of rebuke 2. The faithful servants of God who have been called to declare his mind in the most publike and general Assemblies have predicted and forewarned us of Judgement coming except by repentance we prevent it This hath been a point in which there hath been such an universal concurrence that we have abundant reason to conclude that there hath been much of the presence of God with them in it They have from one time to another solemnly warned us of and called upon us to prepare for these calamityes 3. Since the time wherein God by his servants began to treat us with these warnings his hand hath bin awfully out upon us in taking away eminent useful publique pious men God hath since that time seemed to be upon quick dispaâ—ches in that busines our eys have scarcely bin dry for one though alas they are too soon dry but anothers death hath alarum'd us the ancient pilars on which our foundations once stood strong are almost all gon â—ea also many young ones and very likely to have bin eminently usefull to have bin placed in their roomes and hopefull to have made up the breach have bin pluckt out agen as it were by force 4. It is sadly observable that the spirit of zeal for God and Holiness hath died apace with them We may in a deplorable degree say of our times not only that the godly men die but that they cease we are not now put to it to know whom to employ in our publick concerns in the Magistracy and Ministry yea and other places of weight by reason of multiplicity of choice as it hath sometimes been but rather for want of choice how many Congregations do now want to have the bread of Life to be broken to them and are at a loss how to obtain it and in all sorts of men there seems to be a dying at least a fainting of Religion with the death of the Religious and though through mercy God hath a number yet of choise and faithful ones yet their hands are thus weakned and the sons of Zerviah begin to put out their heads and speak insultingly 5. Nor is it a little to be lamented that those men dye in a great measure unlamented yea by too many reproached and this is the sad note of our Context men lay it not to heart nor consider the hand of God in these things Now let us lay all these things together and see if they do not solemnly speak that we have reason to be afraid that God hath removed them in order to some sore and dreadful calamity which he is preparing for us except he be in time prevented and therefore USE IV. It calls upon us seriously to consider and solemnly to lay to heart the providence of God in this respect It may teach us sadly to bewail and greatly to lament the loss of so many righteous men as God hath lately taken from us for them indeed we have cause of congratulation for they are taken from the evil to come but for our selves there is reason to mourn because their going bodes and beckens evil a coming and at the door I might here urge many incentives but I shall only say this much that to be duely affected with Gods hand and to hear the râ—d and him who hath appointed it may be a mean to continue our tranquillity God is angry with the World when his Children dy unlamented he takes it well when their loss is bewailed And if we would make a right improvment of these things let us lament and repent of those sins which have procured us these miseries let us say Wo to us that we have sinneâ— Have not the Righteous been slighted and ill requited for all their faithful service Have we not slandered reviled and trampled upon them And was it not then time for God to take them to a place where they should be in more honour and esteem Repent of these sins lest you hurry away those that are left and then you may too late sit-down and howle out your Ichabod Oh! be not brutish but sit down and consider when the Pillars are gone how shall the building stand When the Watch-men are asleep who shall descry and warn us of the enemies approach When the Wall is pluckt down and the hedge removed who shall keep out the Bore of the Wilderness When the Gap-men are taken away who shall stand in the breaches When the lights are put out who shall direct us in a right way When the Chariot and Horsmen of Israel are removed who shall defend us from misery and mischief When God is gone what but woes and calamities can befall us God hath now for a long time been pleading with N-E in this kind â—â— how many preciouâ— names are there registred in the black bill of a few years nor is his anger turned away but his hand is stretched out still And now God calls us again to a further occasion of deep consideration by that awful hand of his in the sudden and unexpected departure of that precious one from us and that at such a time 〈◊〉 I know he was gathered to his People in a good old age and full of dayes he lived long enough for himself but dyed too soon for us 〈◊〉 will not be curious in noting the day of his removal though I believe that it deserves its remark nor need I give light to his personal worth which challengeth a sorrowful remembrance of us his own works shall praise him in the gates And though some evil tongues which evermore account much deserving a fault have sought to blemish him yet his name shall live in despite of envy it self His long service in publick imployment and his skilfulness in that 〈◊〉 his great dexterity in militaâ—â— Disciplâ—â—â— a thing now indeed little valued degeneraâ—â— spirits and his great industry propagaâ—â—â—g it to those under his guidance love to his Country 〈◊〉 not in â— few 〈◊〉 pty words but real deâ—â— his adventuring himself in the highest places of the field in â— greatest difficultyes and hazards and that oâ— and again at such time as eminentest dangâ— threatned us and enemies flushed with succeâ— were most insolent yea and then when for his years he might have received his white wand and been acknowledged to be Miles emeritus his tender care for the welfare of this people under the weight whereof there is good ground to think that he sunk and dyed these things I say besides his uprightness towards God as a private Christian his tenderness and love to his brethren as a member of the Church his affability and sweet deportment towards all men in his ordinary converse speak emimently his worth and our loss He is now gone from an unthankful world to receive his reward with God But that which most of all should affect us is that by his removal the gap is wider and we left the more naked Repent then and return to the Lord pray
the Temple And when it is thus to omit the improving a price in our hands is to play the fool egregiously The wise-man tells us their is a season to every purpose and sometimes this season comes once and no more the neglect whereof proves iâ—reparable and leaves a woful sting upon the Conscience 5. There are also sometimes deep and powerfull impressions upon the minds of God's Messengers which by an irresistible impusse constrain them to bear open and publick witness against the sins of the times and places which they live in I am far from pleading for or justifying any thing that looks like Euthusiasm or thinking that men should make a secret impetus upon their spirits the rule and plea of their words and actions But if men who are called by God to declare his counsels advantaged by his providence to proclaim his pleasure directed by his word to speak nothing but that is agreeing there unto are prest in their spirits to a zealous witness bearing against these and those prevailing sins and solemnly to denounce the Judgements of God against them if men repent not I believe there is much of God in it and it carrieâ— a great evidence along with it that God is about to do some speedy strange work there if he be not prevented When we are in such a frame as our Prophet was Jer. 20. 9. His word was in my heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones and I was weary with forbearing and could not stay Or as Elihu Job 32. 18. I am full of matter the spirit within constraineth me And when it is thus it concerns such a People to apply these things to themselves It becomes them not now to take exceptions and grow into a rage but to lay them to heart These things are of God and not in vain They alarum a People to prepare to meet their God and if by repentance they are not rendred healing to them they will prove killing words The sword of his mouth will hew them in pieces Hos 6. 5. I have hewed them by my Prophets and slain them by the words of my mouth God is not wont to let such words perish and come to nought yea though he may defer to accomplish yet he will not disanul them They may be deferred a while but they ly in reserve against the due time Doct. 2. Universal and through Repentance and Reformation is an only and sure way to escape the threatned Judgements of God Universal both referring to the subject viz. All orders of men from the highest to the lowest Jeremiah directs his advice to the Princes Priests Prophets and People and in respect of the term from which all sin every false way and Through not in pretence only or in part Not like that of Jehu's who took away Baal out of Israel but retained Jeroboam's sin Nor only like that of some good Kings of Judah of whom it is said they did that which was â—ght but still the high places were left standing and the People sacrificed at them But like Hezekiah's and Josiah's who sought to remove every offence And there must be both Repentance and Reformation A work that reacheth to both heart and life both inward and outward man Of what efficacy this is will appear if we shall consider 1. That this is the priviledge of a People in visible Covenant with God that there is no threatning denounced against them but with a gracious reserve and room to reverse it in case of Repentance God sometimes indeed seems to speak positively but then to lenefie such absolute threatnings and render them equivalent to Hypothetical he speaks after the manner of men of repenting God imitates his own Law for in making of War he first proffers Peace and presents men with termes of compliance When he takes up armes he would be glad if there were some to hold his hands When he saith I will do thus yet then he wisheth Israel to prepare to meet him Amos 4. 12. If a People of God suffer at his hands it shall be through their own wilfulness God can threaten and never execute and yet be God unchangeable alwayes provided his People do truely repent and amend their wayes and doings 2. God therefore sends his Ambassadours to plead with his People about their sins and publish his Judgements that they may have motive and opportunity to repent Divine threatnings are Expostulatory and awakening They are to convince men of their sin and to put them in aw They are to see if words will do that blows may be spared After threatnings therefore God hearkens Jer. 8. 6. I hearkened and heard but they spake not aright God might else strike as well as menace yea it were as easie nay and as merciful for him so to do were it not that he had rather men should live than dye Hence therefore The Proclamations of War which God makes against a revolting People are to be annumerated to his long-suffering 3. This only can put a stop to the wrath of God from proceeding for as the promise is full to the Penitent so the threatning is as Positive and as much without reserves to those that are impenitent When a People say either with their tongues or with their practices there is no hope but they will follow after their own courses God also faith there is no hope but he will poure out his fury upon them So that when God hath a purpose of mercy to a rebellious People and is resolved to exalt his Grace upon them and also makes known these purposes in those discoveries which we call absolute Promises he doth it so as not to cross this Rule of his Covenant with People and therefore engageth not only to give deliverance from his Judgements but also to do it in such a way as withal to give them the condition Isa 57. 18. I have seen his wayes and I will heal him c. If therefore Repentance be under and after much forbearance neglected it is both a reason why and sign that the decree when it hath gone out its full time shall certainly bring forth 4. God expresseth himself better pleased at the Repentance of his People and thereby extinguishing of the fire of his anger than if it had burnt up and consumed them He therefore gives oath that he delights not in their death professeth that he rejoyceth in their returning like a tender Father who is glad if any means will reclaim his refractory and disobedient Son whom he loveth and for whose good he longs Hence Psal 81. 14. Oh that my People had been obedient unto me and Israel had walked in my wayes And we may truly apply that of Solomon unto Jesus Christ as the Antitype Pro. 23. 15. My Son if thine heart be wise my heart shall rejoyce even mine He reckons himself to have gained a greater conquest when he hath won the hearts of his People to fear and serve him than when he hath broken his enemies
are a general asâ—â—tion wherein two things are observable 1. The subject or that of which the assertion is What we shall be By the which he intends that happiness and Glory to which the sons of God are appointed their future felicity 2. The Predicate or that which is asserted concerning it viz. It doth not yet appear The Proposition is limited in respect of time but unlimited in respect of persons 1. In respect of time it is restrained to the present Not yet q. d. There is a little time in which me must be content to pass in a disguise and not look like our selves but it will not be long The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is used only to express some smal inconsiderable particle of time or delay And when he saith Not yet he withal insinuates that it will not be long It is but during the time that the life lasts and when that comes to an end there will be a beginning of that discovery and in the last day a full and perfect 2. In respect of Persons it is unrestrained he doth not say to whom it doth not appear but only in general affirms that it appears not Indefinit propositions are equivalent to universal Hence we are to understand all men to be here â—â—â—â—nded and the word translated to appear 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifyeth clearly openly permenently to appear to be discerned or seen in open view Hence Doct. The future happy Estate unto which the Children of God are appointed is a thing not clearly known by any in this Life Those Glorious Beatitudes which are bound up and reserved for the entertainment of God's Adopted Children in the highest Heavens are things which be not clearly seen or understood in this World In the prosecution of this Doctrine we may first attend the Demonstration of it and then consider the Grounds 1. By way of Evidence or Demonstration The Truth may be understood and cleared by an induction of particulars And that 1. Negatively And here 1. This Indefinit doth not comprehend God under it For he throughly and perfectly knows what his own thoughts of love and good wil are to his Children He hath predestinated them to their inheritance and laid out in his everlasting Decree what their portion shal be Eph. 1. 11 In whom we have obtained an inheritance being predestinated c. God cannot be ignorant of his own Counsels which have been manifestly known to him from all eternity Acts 〈◊〉 18 Known unto God are all his works from the foundation of the World He knows what his own thoughts are c. Those thoughts of peace which he hath for his People Jer. 29. 11. These things are not under debate with him who is for ever unchangeable 2. Neither doth Jesus Christ come under the Negative our glorified Redeemer hath a full and thorough view of all those happinesses which his Redeemed are to partake in He knows what it is that he hath purchased and paid for with his own Blood it is called the purchased Possession And wise men do not wont to buy and pay at peradventure Nay he must needs know it For 1. He hath taken possession of it He is entered into Glory he is exalted into the Throne and enjoyeth those fulness of joyes and those Rivers of pleasures Heb. 12. 2. And it is the very same Glory which he now hath unto which the Children of God shal ere long be brought Joh. 17. 22. The Glory which thou gavest me I have given them 2. He is gone before to make ready the place of Glory and prepare for the entertainment of his People Joh. 14. begin It is one part of his Meditorial inployment now he is asscended into Heaven to be making all ready for the Children of God against they come there And how can he make ready except he knows what it is that he hath to prepare for them 2. Dubiously and that with respect 1. To the blessed Angels How far forth God is pleased to reveal this to them who are ministring spirits for the carrying on of this work is not to us known or wherein their Glory and the glory of Saints agree and wherein they differ is not within our ken It is certain that mans Salvation by Christ was once to them a misterious truth and they have been gazing upon it with deepest admiration Yet doubtless they know a great deal of this matter 2. To the Souls of Just men made perfect They are now indeed Comprehensors and know well enough the happiness they are in possession of but what discerning or comprehension have they of those complements of Glory which in the Resurrection and after the Day of Judgement shal be added to them we cannot tell The words after my text seem to speak of the last day as being a day of some peculiar discovery We must therefore for the present leave these two and say nothing definitely of them 3. Positively and here we may truely affirm and make it appear that 1. None of the Devils know it doth not appear to them what the Sons of God shal be They may indeed give shreud ghuesses and understand that it shal be very great For being created in the third Heaven and having seen the Glory of it they must needs know that the People of God in so far as they are appointed for the place will be wondrously glorious and their knowing of so much of it makes them so extreamly envious at them and their happiness But still after what manner the Bride the Lambs Wife shal be entertained in the great day when the marriage shal be consummate he shal carry her home to his own Pallace they cannot tell the Angels of Glory cannot know it but by relation and we cannot suppose that God will make special discoveries now to the Devils They may remember what the place was by Creation but what it shal be when Christ hath further prepared it is not for them to understand 2. It doth not appear to wicked men what the Sons of God shal be The World are strangers and intermeddle not with their joy The truth is the World are so far from knowing what they shal be that they do not know what they are at present There are Inchoate felicitys which the Saints have in this life which unregenerate men have no notice or cognizance of they have their feasts their joyes their consolations their boastings that are riddles to the ungodly They know not what the countrey feast of a good Conscience means how then should they understand what are the Provisions of the Kingdom of Glory The Children of God have their joyes and ravishments here and these strangers have no acquaintance with them Sound Divines interpret that 1 Cor. 2. 9. Eye hath not seen c. To be meant of these and that it is spoken concerning ungodly men is evident because he excepts Believers vers 10. But God hath rovealed them to us by his Spirit Those smiles of God's