God as the Apostle did not by sense nor what we feeâ— though never so much yet that must not be our life or if never so little that must not be our death but still live by faith in the son of God who liveth for ever and therefore his people shall not dye nor their Lamps be put out in obscure darkness 3. Consider then have we not declined have not our Lamps burned much clearer then now they do hath not our light been clearer then now it is and our warmth been more then now it is this is matter of humbling to us Have we not received much mixture of error in these erting times we cannot imagine how much darkness it brings upon our Lamps to have one error mixed with much truth Besides may not the Lord Jesus say to us all I have somewhat against you all in that you have left your first love Time was when you were zealous for the house of God and it did even eat you up now you are grown to a Gallio's spirit care not for these things Now we seek our own things and nest our selves in security it is well with us and therefore we consider not the danger poor souls are in by such as go up and down with the power of delusion few mourners in Zion for these things If the Church were under persecution it is likely we should lament truly I look upon its present state as more destructive to it so many Vipers â—ating at the very heart and bowels of Religion where is our burning of zeal for God against these things sure it should humble us 4. We see that Believers may decline and these times do give an abundant proof of it how many that have been as burning and shining lights have been benighted and inveloped in the most Egyptian darkness entertaning the most desperate opinions walking after their own Lusts and yet afterwards have been restored O how should this make us fear before him be not high-minded but fear here thou seest one and there another their lamps next to a being quite extinct yet thou hast light and heat maintained O boast not thy self lift not up thy self but fear before the Lord humility indeed is a kind of a nurse of the graces conservatrix virtutum as Bernard saith If he spared not the Angels in their pride will he spare thee A Novise is in danger of falling into the condemnation of the Devil in danger of being puffed up He giveth grace to the lowly but resisteth the proud Some do observe that word be ye cloathed with humility 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be ye cloathed the word cometh from a word signifying a knot because it ties all together as I may say and so knitteth the graces together as pearls upon a Braslet if the knot be broken they are quickly lost It is indeed brethren the thief in the candle the great waster the Moth in the cloath consumeth it and spoyleth the beauty and strength of it It is the worm at the root of the Guord it will smite it and we see it by sad experience when men grow so proud and pretend to Angelical perfection in our days they fall as low as hell and brutish bestiality in their lusts O therefore let us labour to walk humbly with God be not high-minded though at present we stand and flourish and shine and burn we are liable to declinings 5. If we be so liable to declinings then it should teach us so much the more to be diligent in improving I am sure the Apostle giveth it as a preservative against declining and apostatizing But grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ grow in grace and in knowledge knowledge is that whereby the Lord doth reveal himself to his people from grace to grace as you have it in that place of the Apostle whom beholding as in a glass c. But observe here keep your selves that is fall not from your own stedfastness and how should this be One means is to grow in grace If we would not have our Lamps burn dim and low we must labour to supply them so as they may increase the path of the just is as a shining light which shineth more and more to the perfect day and the wind of that Spirit which bloweth where it listeth it riseth higher and higher as some note O see to it then ordinarily while the fruit is in growth the leaves wither not nor the fruit fals except in some great storm or wind Labour to grow then first in bigness then in sweetness grow more mellow sweet full of love humility and self-denial 6. If we be so liable to decline it should teach us to avoid all those things which tend to a declining else we shall never avoid the thing it self we must take heed of sleeping then for though our Lamps be never so bright when we begin to sleep when we awake they will burn low if not extinct and will have great need of trimming up Security is the undoing evil in all things where was the joy of Davids faith when he began to be secure Psal 30. 7. Take heed of putting off the day of his appearing that will gender to security and that security will bring a neglect of our Lamps and then they will grow low and decline 2. Take we heed of false Teachers try the Spirits whether they be of God or no they have a strange influence upon the life and liveliness of mens profession were they not these that hindered the Galathians Ye did run well who hath hindered you who hath bewitched you that you should not obey the truth Ye did run well in the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the rase wherein they had Lamps or Torches but who hath hindered you The Apostle Peter maketh it the immediate cause of the backsliding and declining at least if not utter apostacy Beware saith he lest ye also being led away with the error of the wicked and fall from your own stedfastness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is to be carried out of his way to go with another the power of error is greater then we are aware of The Apostle speaks thus This I say lest any man deceive you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with enticing words beguile you They have cunning craftiness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cogging with the die Satan changing himself into an Angel of light and his Ministers into Ministers of light and cogging with the die like cunning and deceitful Gamsters how easie is it to deceive the hearts of the simple yea the hearts of his but that they are kept by that power But a great way they may prevail and so we may lose our stedfastness and therefore take heed what spirits we give ear to Alas do we not see in our days what fearful work Satan hath made among Professors how many have their Lamps quite put out that went for zealous
flower of their youth the ripeness of their age and strength to sin and when they come to die have Heaven drop in their mouthes many would be saved but if they must be at such pains for it walk so circumspectly strictly in a frame by rule thus and be exercised in mortification renewing their repentance so much ado with searching and trying their ways they think the wisest course is to sit still it is better sleeping in a whole skin and seven men that can give a reason are not so wise as they let Ministers say what they will they will not believe but they are the wiser men of the two O he that is thus wise in his own conceit there is more hope of a fool then of him well then if the world pass for fools they are the fools indeed in grain and when Saints and sinners the strict walker with God and the formal Hypocrite shall appear before the Lord at the last day then if before you will not believe you shall know who were the wise men and who were the fools Thirdly Then let Wisdm be justified of her children you that are the true sons of Wisdom and not bastards and pretenders justifie Wisdom then though all the world run a contrary course and count it folly to walk thus circumspectly do you count it your Wisdom as the Lord counteth it to be strict and exact in your walkking no matter though the world stigmatize you for fools that you neglect your concernments other wayes sometimes to gain a nearer approach to Christ if the Lord judge you wise men the argument is very strong for what man can bear the imputation of folly indeed every man would be wise Vain man would be wise though he be born like a wild Asses Colt but the Saints methinks that know in some measure what the Wisdom which is from above doth mean should labour to approve themselves wise men indeed by a circumspect walking with God And you that profess the Name of Christ though it may be not all of you in truth you would be wise though you walk not circumspectly shall I bespeak you in the Prophets words how say you we are wise and we have the Law c. when you walk not by this rule Ah take heed you prove not foolish Virgins when all is done it is not Wisdom to dally with Religion and with God he will not be mocked Then you that are wise indeed and do in a good part walk exactly shall I beg of you that you would yet more and more labour to approve your selves wise men and women in a great exactness of your walking avoiding all appearance of evil as the Apostle speaks in following after whaever is comely of good report you know what the Wise man saith A man that is in reputation for Wisdom that passeth for a wise man and a close-walking Saint a little folly is like a dead Fly in the Box of Oyntment that maketh it stink by how much the more the Lord hath done for you this way be so much the more careful O it is this Wisdom that will make your faces shine Brethren so it did the face of Moses and David but a little folly in a David what a blemish it casts upon it and what a reproach and blemish upon the beautiful way of holiness O then I beseech you Brethren Labour to cease from your own Wisdom for indeed this is folly and contrary to the Wisdom of God He that hearkneth to counsel is wise It is a sad thing when the People of God are not advisable are so full of self-will and self-wisdom that they cannot cease from it so David in numbering the people he had good counsel given him though by a man far enough inferiour to himself in spirituals but was not advisable and what a blot did he bring upon himself we profess to give up our wils and wisdoms to him and yet when it cometh to the pinch many times we must have our wils and we must have our own contrivances go forward or else we cannot aquiesce I said in quietness and confidence should be your rest but you would not Again Then beg this Spirit of Wisdom more earnestly greater measure of it for it is he that giveth Wisdom to walk exactly this Wisdom from above which is pure and peaceable and gentle and easie to he intreated so that a child may lead such a man or woman if he present any thing of light and God to them And then Brethren when you have the Spirit walk in the Spirit in the Power of this Spirit of Wisdom let it prevail over your own wils and your own opinions of your own ways subject all to him and you shall find that he will guide you by his counsel and afterwards receive you to Glory Thus much for this Observation These were his last Lecture-Sermons the last words viz. Redeeming the Time because the dayes are evil He stayed not to finish FINIS The Parable of the ten Virgins Mat. 25. from the 1. v. to the 14. v. Then shall the Kingdom of Heaven be likened unto ten Virgins which took their lamps and went forth to meet the Bridegroom And five of them were wise and five were foolish They that were foolish took their lamps and took no oyl with them But the wise took oyl in their vessels with their lamps While the Bridegroom tarried they all slumbred and slept And at midnight there was a cry made behold the Bridegroom cometh go ye out to meet him Then all those Virgins arose and trimmed their lamps And the foolish said to the wise give us of your oyl for our lamps are gone out But the wise answered saying Not so lest there be not enough for us and you but go ye rather to them that sell and buy for your selves And while they went to huy the Bridegroom came and they that were ready went in with him to the marriage and the door was shut Afterward came also the other virgins saying Lord Lord open unto us But he answered and said verily I say unto you I know you not Watch therefore for ye know not the day neither the hour wherein the Sâ—nâ—fman cometh A Parable is a representation of some truth to the understanding under such things as are obvious to to the senses and familiar to us in our ordinary use and experience in the Gospel yea the Scriptures Old and New are full of them I lift not to trouble you to speak much to their Nature but I understand they be a kinde of a similitude as the Parable Chap. 24. 32 33. Learn a Parable of the â—ig-tree when it putteth forth leaves and the branches are yet tender the Summer is nigh ye know it was a thing familiar to them in experience so likewise ye when ye see these things come to pass know it is near even at hand A metaphor is a simile contracted into one
but yet it shineth more and more the Sun runneth his race though now and then a cloud intercepts his comfortable beams from the earth And that of the Psalmist his leaf shall never wither the leaf is the profession he shall not wither but be green An hypocrite indeed like a Bull-rush will wither as we shall see by and by when the mire and the water fails but a child of God withers not There are two Conditions which usually wither mens profession but the child of God stands it out in both 1. In a prosperous state that useth to choak the word they that will call upon God in the day of distress in their afflictions wil seek him earnestly yet when his hand is taken away they no more remember the Lord their Saviour but a child of God now in his prosperous condition he loseth not his profession altogether though the Lamp may be damped yet not extinguisht And 2. For adversity that indeed is a trying time all this is come upon us yet have we not dealt falsly in the Covenant will the hypocrite alway call upon God he will not call upon God alway nor wait for him Yea the time of affliction usually is an advantage to the people of God if ever their Lamp burn brighter then another it is in the dark and cold night of persecution and affliction a Torch the more knockt against any thing the more it burns Secondly Because they have within them a Spring of oyl that feeds the Lamp therefore it goeth not out It is set forth in another metaphor in that place of John out of his belly shall flow Rivers of water springing up to eternal life Now where there is this within the flame will live while there is oyl to maintain it It is like fire in a mans bosom he cannot carry it so surely but it will discover it self as fire in the bones as the Prophet speaks of the word of God And 3. Because that cruse of oyl is continually supplyed by the Spirit and from the fulness of Christ therefore it never fails If the oyl in the vessel could fail then the Light in the Lamp might fail but it faâ—ls not and why not because it is not perishable in its own nature being but a creature but because it is kept by the power of God we are kept by the power of God to salvation alas if it were in our keeping we should quickly with the Prodigal run our selves out of all as we do in a moment lose the most precious frames the Lord is pleased to put upon us but it is kept by that power none is able to pluck them out of this hand of the Father the Son Sin is strong indeed strong lusts and Satan is strong a Lyon a Dragon a Prince of the power of darkness and Armies of lusts he hath warring in our members a great strength and all these pluck at us but they cannot pull us out of this hand of Christ And thence it is that their Lamps are not put out in obscure darkness O how fain would Satan blow out the Candle that we might walk in the darkness not knowing whither we go but it is held in the hand of Christ and it is above the reach of his poysonous breath to do it A damp of lusts from our own hearts if any thing would do it this would and it maketh them burn very dimly and blew many times but yet cannot overcome the Lamp may want trimming but it is not out For the Application then of this Doctrine If it be so that Believers are subject to such declinings yea when they should be at the best in their latter end when they should bring forth fruit in old age that then they may be ready to wither or in a great part the leaves their profession may change colour and lose its greenness What should this teach us all in the first place but to take heed of placing our confidence in any thing which may fail us If any thing on this side the Lord Jesus himself might be trusted in it might be grace for there is not any other so near approach to God without which Angels were but Devils the very perfection of Saints and Angels And yet because it hath its imperfections therefore it is not to be trusted to Nothing indeed is more spiritual then grace the choisest communications of the eternal spirit to the Creature but yet considered in comparison with the God of grace it is but flesh if it be rested upon the strongest mountain that a man would think should never be shaken yet sin and Satan if the Lord permit can get under it and blow it up Yea if our grace were perfect yet we might not rest in it because yet it hath its comparative imperfections it self being but a derivative and dependent Being upon the God of grace at the best it is but a stream a beam though nearer the Sun and nearer the Fountain and but the water of a Cistern and if whole before yet this resting upon it would make it a broken Cistern Well then bretbren if our profession flourish never so if it be spring time with you trust not in it for there may come a fall after this spring there may come a time of scorching heat may make you wither in a great part at least Though your Lamp burn and shine never so gloriously and the light be great which ariseth from these sparks of Gods kindling you see it may come to want trimming to burn more dimly therefore trust not in it 2. It should teach us then to live by faith in respect hereof Alas brethren we are withering every moment if we have not waterings every moment what would become of us now whence must this come but from the fountain of Israel the eternal spring and fulness which is in Jesus Christ Of his fulness we receive saith the Evangelist What made the difference between the rest of the Disciples their profession of him and Peters all their Lamps were damped in that hour and power of darkness it was so great and gross but his was almost gone and giving up And for those acts the flame was even out but that the Lord blew it in again by the breathing of his spirit O Labour to live by faith in Jesus Christ for preventing grace then that we may not be removed from our stedfastness The Apostle had a strong perswasion that neither life nor death the intisements of the one nor the terrors of the other should separate him from the Love of God in Jesus Christ O it was that love he hung upon You see that grace it self which is the oyl in the vessel which seeds the Lamp is loseable and therefore much more the external fruits and effects of it Now if the power of God do not keep us we are gone therefore we must hence learn to live by the faith of the son of
endure every profession will not abide but it overcometh them But haply they may go down quietly and go away with confidence in their conscience a strange confidence have many poor blinded hypocrites whose consciences are seared Yet Thirdly Be sure brethren It will not carry them through the Judgement after the death the Judgement we may make a shift to pass through this world and haply delude our selves and think all is well and through death and yet never dream of our misery but if we be hypocrites be sure that a form will not endure to appear in Judgement before the ever lasting burnings the consuming fire There the Lord will examine mens hands what ever their professions have been and their hearts as it is said of Tiberius when he examined a fellow that pretended to the Crown he was so confident and cunning he could not trap him in his words at last he examined his hands and finding them hard with labour he found him to be but a servile mechanick fellow he was then so startled saith Mr. Caryl that he had no more to say So the Lord will examine mens works then and the principles of their works from which they acted and they shall be forced to confess they are hypocrites and their mouthes shall he everlastingly stopt depart from me ye workers of iniquity you tell me ye have preached in my name or prophesied c. let me see your hands you are workers of iniquity For the Application then What a terrible word to all formal professors who have only a Lamp a form of godliness but deny the power of it in heart and in their conversations Let all such if any such be here present know First Your profession will fail you sooner or later You think when you have done so many duties you have acquired such gifts and such supposed graces of the spirit and 〈…〉 w all is well these are enough to lift you up to heaven a Tower a Ladder that will reach to heaven But alas it is not so it is but a Castle builded in the air they are lying words you trust in who cry The Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord are these You are his people and have his Ordinances a fine web a spider weaves takes great pains spins it out of her bowels but alas it never cometh to any thing it will not make a garment to cover their nakedness from the Lord Jesus Hypocrites rest in a formality and some observances of the Law as if it were their hope that should secure them from all storms and injuries whatsoever but alas it will not these things will fail Secondly Is it not worthy observation also that an hypocrite if he go to decay in this life his hypocrisie be discovered he decaies quickly suddenly more suddenly then another man ordinarily therefore he is compared to a Bull-rush that withers before any other plant when they are once blasted cursed as God doth curs them many times alas the next day they are gone and withered as the tree that was dryed up by the root which the Disciples wondered at a sad thing to-have leaves without fruit a form without power the withering curse doth light upon them soonest sooner then prophane persons and how quickly are they withered they are like the grass upon the house top that withereth before it groweth up Thirdly It will be sure to sail a man when he hath most need of it as in the hour of temptation the hour of affliction the hour of death and the hour of judgement in all these usually it fails as a man standing him in no stead◠as the brooks run in the winter when there is no need of them but in Summer when the traveller is ready to perish for thirst then are they dryed up in that place of Job Like the Apples of Sodom if a man come to touch them would be refreshed by them they turn to dust poor creatures think they have faith until an hour of temptation or affliction when they should act it then they have none So they think they have love and bowels but when an opportunity is offered and they have most need of them then they fail like the house there in Matth. 7. It was builded as fair to see to as another as the wise mans house and served him while it shone upon his Tabernacle but when once the storms arose the winds came and the waves beat against it alas it fell and great was the fall thereof Fourthly that which will set an edge upon all the former is the sad disappointment of the hypocrite or formalist in all this for his hope is cut off like a spiders web there are two Pillars he leans upon as Sampson upon the Pillars in the house the Jachin and Boaz What are they but the good things of this world and life eternal and alas both fail him For the good things of this life they many times leave him the mire and the water which made the Bull-rush to grow they are dryed up what is become of his hope then he leans laies hold on his house and is loath to let it go but let him hold it as fast as he can yet down it must go when the Lord cometh to manifest his displeasure against him Secondly For things eternal those he expecteth and is as high until he be discovered to himself in his expectation of heaven as any other but alas he is but in a golden dream all this while as an hungry man dreameth he eateth c. but it is nothing but a fancy when he awakes he is never the fuller but rather vexed so much the more being disappointed for a man to have his hope cut off is the greatest cut in the world nothing breaks the creatures heart more then this O how great hope may a Minister be raised to being an instrument in the hand of God to save others that he also shall be saved they themselves have means to castout the Devil and shall they go to the Devil It is indeed the very emphasis of damnation to be cast down from such a height of hope to be so near to heaven in their hopes and yet miscarry O how should this make us afraid of hypocrisie and formality which is ready to creep upon us how bitter a thing is it in the end to hypocrites yea to the people of God in their way when God opens their eyes to behold it in its colours therefore let us be exhorted every one of us to take heed of it lest it be found in such prevalency among us as to denominate us hypocrites believe it brethren If we be hypocrites our duties will not commend us to God be they never so many never so plausible because our hearts are not changed which is a notable sign of an hypocrite he doth much duty but never reacheth to a better heart is not changed
is called a new creature to shew us the great transcendent power whereby Jesus Christ is formed in a soul It is the Fathers proper work through the Son by the Spirit the Father giveth it the Son purchaseth it the Spirit applyeth it and works it Create in me a clean heart O God renew a right Spirit within me saith David holiness is a creation and peace is a creation he will create the fruit of the lips peace peace a creation is of nothing or somewhat utterly unfit to receive such a form or being so that the fruit of the lips they are weak and cannot reach such an effect it is Gods Almighty power and the same power that raised up Jesus from the dead that must raise a dead soul to believe in Jesus Christ When Rachel would have of Jacob that which was beyond his power to give he saith Am I in Gods stead that I should give thee children So may the people of God and Ministers say to some sometimes who come to them as if they could give them peace or comfort and expect that as soon as ever they speak a word presently all their doubts and fears should be quelled and subdued no no it is too heavy a weight you lay upon them it is a thing above their reach This the second Thirdly If they were able to do it they have no authority no commission to do it and therefore they may not do it Jesus Christ was annointed for this very end to do the thing I come to do thy will O God in the 40. Psal and what is that will Why that none that the Father hath given him should be lost or perish but his blood and Spirit should be given to them grace and glory should be given to them this is the will of God even your Sanctification and this will he came to do it was that the Father designed him to to deliver his people from their sins therefore was the spirit poured out in such a full measure yea without measure upon the head of this our high-Priest that it might run down to the very skirt of his garment to the very lowest Christian that belongs unto him It is not every member in the body nor any other but the head which is made the seat of the animal Spirits to communicate them to the least and lowest member Now it is not what men are able to do but what they have Commission to do that is authentick If they were able there is no Commission the Lord Jesus only came Authorized to open the Prison doors to Preach deliverance and to give deliverance to the Captives This the third Fourthly If all these did concur in men yet they might want a heart when all is done and then all the rest would avail little to us in our necessity and though it be true the Saints do retain bowels of mercy and do put them on and long-suffering and patience yet alas how short-nostrilled are the best of the Saints in comparison of God Moses his patience was at an end yet the weakest man and had often interceded for them yet ye Rebels must we fetch water out of the rock for you though the murmuring was not against him but against God If a sinner put off getting grace and coming to Christ until the last our patience will hardly hold out so long let the power of my Lord be great as thou hast said c. herein our weakness doth much appear we are ready to cast off and give up men if they come not in quickly and if afterward they do come in we are ready to shut our hearts against them But if there were a heart yet there is no power and that will answer all therefore if we go to the creature for grace we are like to have a denyal Before we apply this or else as a part of the Application shall be to speak somewhat by way of satisfaction to a doubt This seemeth to cross the Scriptures are not the Saints bound to communicate one to another to do good forget not is not this of a larger sense then meerly giving a little of our estates to them if in want So again when thou art converted strengthen thy Brethren saith our Saviour to Peter and how can you say then that if we go to the Saints for grace we are like to have a denyal To this I answer the Saints may and ought to communicate their experiences to others as their necessity requireth the humble shall hear hereof and be glad how when his soul made her boast in God And so again the Psalmist as a type of Christ He brought me up out of the horrible pit out of the mierie clay and set my feet upon a rock and established my goings he hath put a new song in my mouth c. And what then Many shall see it and fear and shall trust in God And so saith the Apostle That ye may comfort others with the comforts wherewith your selves are comforted of God this is doubtless a duty to communicate our experiences and also to exhort one another while it is called to day as the Apostle hath it and to reprove one another this is a duty but this is far from giving of grace For the more distinct understanding therefore of this note only two or three particulars 1. For any merit of our works we cannot give for indeed there is none at all If we deserve any thing at the hands of God it is wrath and ruine it is meer mercy we are not consumed every time we approach this consuming fire with our filthy garments upon us because his compassions fail not when we have done all commanded if we could do it we are but improfitable servants but alas how infinitely short do we fail of what is commanded in many things in all things we offend all for who doth any thing as he should our sufferings of this life are not worthy to be compared to the glory there must be a proportion in merit now they are light that is weighty they are for a moment that is eternal and a far more exceeding and eternal weight Now no man can give that which he hath not 2. The glory of our works That we cannot give away that is the Lords that others may see them and glorisie your Father which is in heaven Mat. 5. 16. 3. The influence of them upon others hearts That we cannot give neither we may speak and do plant and water but it it God that giveth the increase the husband-man may plough and sow and harrow but he cannot give the rain of heaven former and later he cannot give power to the seed to dye and rise again it is beyond his reach who can touch the heart but the Lord he is the God of the Spirits whose dwellings are with our spirits especially and he can fashion them as he pleaseth
excuse your selves with them in the Gospel I have bought this and that and I cannot come I have so many Custodiums I cannot mind these things I have so much to do in the world and it is to be minded A poor ditch-water that is preferred before this Wine of the Kingdom will dross and dung meat and husks which is Swines meat nourish your souls to eternal life make as much account brethren of these things as you will to slight now the matters of eternity time will come when you would give all the fruit of your labours if it were a thousand times more for one sight of Jesus Christ one taste of his love one hours communion withhim before you go hence and be no more Alas But some will say I am a poor sinner the vilest filthy creature lame and blind and have all my life time been feeding with Swine upon husks and swill and trash these delights of sin and pleasures of the world O my days are consumed in sin and doth he invite such as I and may I come Yea brethren you find the poor lame and blind from the hedges and high-ways side were invited to his feast if you come but to Jesus Christ he will open the eys of the blind he hath eyeâ—alve for you and he will be legs to the lame and cloathing to the naked if you do but come to him put on Christ It is not any other infirmities which will abide upon the best of Gods people in part that can exclude us or cast us out but only the want of the wedding Garment if a man be never so well furnished otherwise as he thinketh O therefore come Brethren the Feast is made for such as you you are invited to it the simple the man void of understanding that is to say the sinner for sin is folly in Scripture-phrase you are invited to turn in this day to the Feast the Marriage-feast which is begun here upon earth but will end in heaven therefore be not discouraged Ah but you will say I have no such appetite to the Feast to hunger and thirst and is there any invited to come to it but such as have an appetite what shall they do there I answer no marvel thou hast no great appetite until thou hast more communion with him if thou hast had any And no marvel if thou hast no appetite if thov hast never been with Jesus for thou hast so long lived upon trash that it takes away the stomack to the sweetest and wholsomest food in the world But withal remember this who ever will is invited to come brethren and take freely It may be thou dost not find poor sinner such a strong desire such a breaking of soul for longing but hast thou a Will wouldst thou have Christ wouldst thou have his body this meat indeed this blood this drink indeed this wine of the Kingdom and begin this Feast this Marriage-feast upon earth why dost thou not take him then come and take it freely O that this might be the day of his power to many of your poor souls that you might become a willing people that you might have a heart to close with him to take him upon his own terms that you might begin your heaven upon earth your communion with Jesus Christ I will but add one word more and that is this It is no indifferent thing whether you close with this invitation or no there is a necessity lies upon you to come to the Marriage-feast except you resolve upon it to perish for ever God he was wroth and sent forth his armies to destroy c. Ah what gnashing of teeth will there be to poor sinners in hell when they shall see their neighbours who heard this Gospel with them sit down with Abraham Isaac and Jacob at the table of Christ in his kingdom and themselves cast out Ah brethren I beg for you a believing heart you must either feast with Christ or starve for ever with Satan and his Angels and then not a drop will be had to cool your tongues now flagons are tendered you now wine and milk without money and price now rivers of pleasures at Gods right hand and fulness of joy is promised you is held out to you cometh a begging to you Ah then then brethren shall you beg for a drop and shall not have it rivers of burning brimstone will be your bathing when the Saints are swallowed up of those rivers of pleasures at his right hand then will you be chewing upon your gall and wormwood then will you be breaking your teeth upon your gravel when the Saints are drinking this new wine in the kingdom of their Father with Jesus Christ Ah think of it brethren think of it you have now your good things many of your eyes stand out with fatness you spend a world upon your lusts live like Epicures wantonizing in the abundance of your enjoyments how woful will that sentence be Son remember thou in thy life time hadst thy good things and now thou art tormented hadst thy wine and drinking unto drunkenness now the stings of it abide upon thee the Saints have their worst first and the best kept until the last but you have your consolation in this world and the wine of astonishment will be your portion for ever if you will not be perswaded Therefore take your choice brethren I set life and death before you and consider of it How will you escape if you neglect this great salvation you may now be received to the Feast the door stands open it will not alway be so it will be shut against you O how will you answer it another day before the Lord Jesus if you now trample under foot his blood and precious offers of his Grace though by the hand and mouth of a poor worm like your selves Thirdly Then Brethren let as many as have received power to believe in the Lord Jesus and so are admitted to the beginning of this Marriage-supper upon earth to inward fellowship with Jesus Christ in the Graces of his Spirit and merits of his death and resurrection labour brethren to prepare your selves for this Feast in heaven by feeding heartily upon these dainties upon earth the more men eat and drink the more their stomacks are extended usually and the more they will receive surely it is so in spirituals the more a soul feeds upon Christ and the more abundantly he drinketh the more he may it enlargeth the desires Hitherto saith our Saviour you have asked nothing little or nothing Ask and ye shall receive that your joy may be full the more abundantly the soul is satisfied with the goodness of the house of God the more will the mouth be opened to receive now as our capacities do enlarge so much the more fitter are we for this Marriage-feast O therefore let us not come to the table of the Lord brethren this sign and
though he profess never so much love to Israel And O if he would give me a house full of gold and silver I cannot go beyond the Word of the Lord And O that my latter end might be as his Yet the Lord can see he is but a wretch for all this therefore Brethren I beg of you that it may be a searching word to us all Whether ever we have known him or be known of him have you ever touched him with the touch of faith for the pardon of your sins for the healing of your corruptions and have you found healing come from him yea or no have you known him the power of his death the power of his life and Spirit yea or no If you have not the Spirit of Christ you are none of his whose ever you be and he will not own you be sure Brethren for his sons for his friends to admit you to the feast except you be his indeed Ah dear friends I doubt many of us will be found with the foolish Virgins following after the creature resting in somewhat else beside the Lord Jesus Do not think your crying Lord Lord will do it this you may do and fall short did not Judas come with his hail Master and kiss him and yet his heart full of treason against him was this his kindness to Jesus Christ and do not many of us kiss him salute him with a kiss of love and homage or obedience in shew and yet in our lives deliver him up to be scourged by our loosness of carriage that there is no difference between us and other men open the mouths of the wicked and this constantly and without a returning to him will he own such a soul think you O how can we be contented to be uncertain in our conditions lest when all is done we should be disowned shut out at that day Thirdly Then Brethren let us all labour and be exhorted to it to study to approve our hearts to God more then to men a needful lesson to us all and it will be our wisdom surely for alas what if men know us and own us and favour us as Saints and precious people and Jesus Christ will not know our souls will this countervail O Brethren see to it that your praise be not of men but of God! O how apt we are to be lifted up and cheared if men think well of us and dejected if we suffer in their breasts if they disown us to be cast out of their hearts would go to our hearts it may be and we could not be quiet Alas what is this to that fearful sentence I know you not If Christ disown us what is it if all the Saints should own us and if he own us what should it discourage us though they none of them own us O labour to be more inward Christians and build your comforts upon the sure mercies of David in Jesus Christ No matter what is the rising way in the world which is the rising Sun Look to the mind of Christ keep a conscience void of offence toward him and make this your work to be found in him when all is done not in your gifts not in your duties not in your graces but in Christ O such a soul knoweth the Lord Jesus and such a soul is known of him and shall be known to all eternity Fourthly Here is an encouraging word to poor doubting souls It may be they are ready to pass this fearful sentence upon themselves sooner then many a wretched hard-hearted hypocrite to whom it properly belongs No matter man though thy gifts be not so great as another mans thou canst do little or hast not those sweet refreshings and enlargements which another hath Is thy heart approved to Jesus Christ canst thou approve thy soul to him that thou lovest him as Peter Lord thou knowest that I love thee though it may be not so much as other Saints do nor so much as the great things he hath done for thee call for yet thou lovest him and wouldst fain love him more be of good 〈◊〉 for thou art known of him If any man love God he is known of God A Judas may be an open professor of Christ and come to him in the day And a poor Nicodemus at the first dare but come in the night it may be and was a very shallow Scholar in Christ's School which is the discouragement of many a poor soul And Judas in the mean time a renowned Teacher of others and yet behold how the one betrayes the Lord Jesus and the other sticks to him when he was dead and professeth him openly at such a time as that when there was most discouragement against it O therefore Brethren though your grace be weak and little at the first if there be the root of the matter in thee if thou canst approve thy heart thou lovest him there is nothing in heaven nor in earth thou wouldest have in comparison of him though thy infirmities be many temptations be many thou art a poor wearied creature it may be with thine own heart be of good comfort the Lord Jesus hath already owned thee and he will own thee in that day And me thinks Brethren as on the one hand when such bold confident souls that make no other reckoning but of salvation but they reckon without Jesus Christ when they meet with so sad a disappointment in stead of an admittance they meet with I know you not O how will their hearts dye within them So on the other hand when a poor trembling doubting Thomas that it may be knoweth not what to think of himself nor his condition he is searching and trying and praying and fasting and humbling running and pressing hard forward and can get little ground of his corruptions which much discourageth him O he walks tremblingly lest he should receive this fearful sentence at the last that the Lord Jesus knoweth him not hath never had any thing to do with him notwithstanding all his profession sin is in strength corruption prevails though it is the bitterness of his soul O when such a poor doubting creature that haply many times looks for nothing but a fearful sentence depart from me shall have this pronounced O come thou poor soul I know thee I have known thee from the beginning of the world though thou hast been doubting of my love yet I know thee though thou hast been made black with affliction and thy visage so marr'd as others knew thee not refuge failed thee no man cared for thee for thy soul yet I know thee though thou hast been wounded with many sins many temptations and walked under many a discouraged heart yet I know thee O how will this be as everlasting life from eternal death to such a soul So that the soul shall now have now more place for doubting the satisfaction shall come with a mandamus he will speak salvation to the heart that it cannot
upon us no man desires that he knoweth not We think we are in health and strength of soul in as good a condition as any need nothing and yet are poor and miserable and blind and naked just like a poor man the strength of his disease works him off his senses as we say he thinkeeh he is well as ever in his life when alas he is drawiâ—g nigh the chambers of death his disease is so much the more dangerous Brethren sin 〈…〉 s our heads with such fumes of pride and self-confidence and carnal reasonings that we are ready to conclude all is well with us and I doubt many of us whom this concerneth will put it away from us upon this very account We are whole need not the Physitian so we have no desire to be healed the tender of a plaister by another to a man that thinketh he hath no wounds it is ridiculous they are more ready to mock at it then receive it so far are Sinners from providing an healing for themselves because they are not sensible of their need of it they desire it not Depart from us we desire not the knowledge of thy ways we are well enough without it yea more we have no desire to be healed because we are in love with our diseases not as a man that hath an issue he knoweth doth him good would not have it stopt but we have many bloody issues of sin and because of the pleasure and delight or proâ—t or humour or some things we please our selves with them for we are loath to part with them Augustine himself was loath to be healed so soon of his lust not yet Lord not yet said his heart when he prayed for healing the disease hath seized upon the will it self so that it is pleased and taken with the sickness the ill savour of our wounds the stench of them is sweet to us while we have a stinking nostril and therefore no marvel if we can never heal our selves there is need of this Lord Jesus to come with healing under his wings Thirdly We do reject healing and the Physitian When he would have healed us we would not be healed therefore much less can we do it our selves I would have purged thee and thou wast not purged c. Brethren how often hath the Lord Jesus called upon us all and have we not many of us as often refused Hath he not stretched out his hands all the day long all the day of Grace which hath continued long with us and we have been a rebellious a disobedient people we would none of his counsel either it is too mean as Naaman said when he was bid to go and wash in Jordan seven times and he should be cleansed What are not Abana and Pharâ—ar Rivers of Damascus better then all the waters of Israel so proud dust and ashes the Lord opens a fountain for sin and uncleanness proclaimeth to every poor sinner who ever will let him come let his disease be what it will bathe in this Fountain he shall be healed what saith the proud sinner are there not waters of our own will not our own repentance do it we are very backward through the pride of heart to receive even gratis as that proud Papist said He would not have heaven gratis this Pope is in all our bellies therefore the Apostle calls it a submission they would not submit to the righteousness of God in Jesus Christ So we look upon the blood of Jesus Christ as an unholy a contemptible thing will not trust wholly to this grace or else if not too mean yet the way that God goeth to work with a sinner to heal him it is too severe a bitter potion they must take down what must we so much bewail our selves must we search and try our ways rake in our wounds this we cannot indure this will cost us much smart and anguish as it did David and Peter and Ephraim poor foolish creatures we had rather dye of our wounds then to have them searched far from that temper of David we are Search me and try me though some of us I hope have been so exercised in the work of searching and mortification that we can many times say with the Psalmist Lord search us but alas many of us it is otherwise with we come not to the light lest our deeds should be discovered it would shame us you know Ahab could not indure to hear of his sins he hated Mâ—caiah and that cursed principle is in all our hearts we would be humored and daubed and have the hurt of our souls healed slightly because we cannot digest the severity and sharpness of the medicines we are afraid of the wrings and gripes the Prayers the Fastings it will cost us and therefore we are enemies to it 4. If we were never such friends to it if we would never so fain be healed it is not in our power it is above the sphere of our activity if the stripes had been laid upon us which were laid upon Christ when he was whipped with Scorpions alas every blow would have cut us in sunder and given us our portion in that lake that burns with fire and brimstone for ever You see brethren that they fetched blood at every blow of our blessed Saviour who was equal with his Father having an infinite Power and Spirit to uphold him and yet O how he ran down with blood dropping upon the ground when the world was to be drowned and overwhelmed all the veins of the earth were as I may say opened so now the Lord Jesus when his Spirit was overwhelmed and amazed as I may say and the Lord in a manner would now swallow him up My God why hast thou forsaken me all the voins the channels of his body were opened O how the blows did even almost fetch away the soul of our Saviour witness that Out-cry what had become of poor man iâ— this had been laid upon him Beside who can pardon our sins is there any but God that can pardon sins and is not this a great part of healing who can speak peace but he He will speak peace to his people he can do it with one word of his mouth he createth the fruit of the lips peace peace assuredly he createth it peace who can subdue a lust all the maceration of the body that the frame of Nature will bear will not do it as it is said of Hierom though his hair did even stand upright with fasting and lying upon the ground yet all would not do to subdue concupilcence he should have taken Gods way and then his help would have come in no no I will subdue their iniquities they are too stiff-hearted for any but the Lord Jesus none could break the heart of sin but he by being broken himself for our iniquities nor can any do it to death though wounded and bleeding and the heart be broken but he himself
of us free-born if any by nature should have been free-born surely the seed of Abrahâ—m according to the flesh but our Saviour tells them their liberty was but imaginary if the Son did make them free they should be free indeed this is the third Fourthly by tenure and usurpation there is a bondage also as we see it in the case of Israel in Egypt they were bond-men in Egypt and they made them serve a hard bondage it is called the house of bondage they made them serve with rigour so saith the text in all manner of service the design of the King being to weary them out by degrees and yet to advantage himself by their service while they were wearying out this was their wise dealing with them lest they should be too hard for them and truly of this nature is the bondage wherein the people of God themselves are in part though the Devil have no title to them the price being paid for them to the justice of the Father yet he as a tyrannical â—aylor loath to let them go and therefore he loads them with chains laies heavy temptations upon them and sin rageth to lose its servant and therefore tyrannizeth and the Law in the members carryeth captive to the Law of sin and this is one great grief to the poor child of God that though sin do not raign in their mortal bodies yet it tyrannizeth over them and with a strong hand many times holds them down so as that they are not able to stir hand nor foot but more of this afterwards Now for the parts of this bondage with which the parts of that liberty or freedom we are to speak of will run parallel We shall devide this bondage into these two general parts it is either to sin or else to the black concomitants which are very many we shall particularize some of them and thereby our liberty will the more plainly appear First then for sin it is clear we are in bondage to sin either totally or in part all of us by nature altogether in bondage for we are sold under sin and though it be true that sin is only a privation of good and disposition to evil and so properly cannot be said to rule over us yet by a prosopopeia we are said to be in bondage to it therefore we are said to be sold under sin sold under it and therefore in Scripture it is that sin is called an old man corrupt according to deceitful lusts and this old man it is that hath the poor sinner under his power and ruleth him with subtilty O they are deceitful lusts â—he counsels of sin the fetches and tricks and devices depths and methods of a sinful heart who knoweth Brethren he carryeth it so slily that many think themselves at liberty as free-men as any the world hath yea so free as to promise to others liberty and yet themselves in the mean time are the servants of sin and not only so but theâ—â— are Laws of sin which carry a strength with them and the poor creature under them must obey them and these Laws are nothing else but the wills of the flesh as the Apostle calls them an arbitray government here beginneth and takes it rise Hoc volo sic jubeo c. saith the imperious person If a sinner begin to question what reason there is in such an act he is prompted to sin bloweth out the candle hoc volo c. let my will be a reason I will have it so So many lusts so many wills and is it not a bondage to be under these Ye were saith the Apostle the servants of sin but now ye have obeyed from the heart the form of Doctrine delivered unto you and so in several other places whosoever committeth sin saith our Saviour is the servant of sin You talk of being Abrahams seed and never being in bondage this is nothing to my purpose I speak of a bondage to sin and he that commits it is the servant of it he that works it industriously is a drudge to his lusts as alas how many of us are and he that curiously works it is an Artist O with what art can some mon lye and cheat and cozen and play the hypocrites these are the servants of sin O when one fulfills the lusts of the flesh and of the mind maketh provision for the flesh to satisfie the lusts thereof This man is a servant of sin the lusts of the flesh the lust of the eye the pride of life the love of profits the love of pleasures and the love of pride when men give themselves up to satisfie these study their lusts how to fulfill them this is a bondage under sin with a witness Now blessed be the Lord the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who hath delivered us as many as believe from this bondage so the Apostle breaks out pathetically Thanks be to God that ye were the servants of sin but ye have obeyed from the heart the form of Doctrine delivered unto you now saith he being made free from sin ye became the servants of righteousness and this is set forth by our death to sin ye are dead saith the Apostle to the Col. and your life is hid with Christ in God now death puts an end to all bondage 〈◊〉 as Job speaking of it the small and great are there in the grave and the servant is free from his Master A woman saith the Apostle speaking of sin of the Law with respect to sin as afterward we shall speak somewhat she is bound to her husband as long as he liveth but if he be dead then she is free So it is in this case death breaks all the iron yoaks and brazen gates therefore saith the Apostle he that is dead is freed from sin not as the vulgar and some read is justified as if our justification and sanctification were confounded for here the Apostle is speaking of our Sanctification or the death of sin crucifying the old man of being buried with Christ in body and so dead to sin now saith he he that is dead is free from sin the Con. is comprehended in the Antecedent he is freed actually from sin Sin shall not have dominion over you saith the Apostle no iniquity shall have dominion over you Thus believers are freed from sin whereas before we were under a cruel bondage you that have experience of this liberty what it is to be freed from your former lusts which you served foolish and hurtful lusts the Lord teach you to prize it But secondly now for the Con. of this bondage to sin there are many and very dreadful which every poor sinner is under which are also as parts of this bondage First then hence it is that we are in bondage unto Satan that we are under his power that we are in bondage by nature to him as the Jaylor it is clear the Spirit that now
the Lord who is most slighted in all this should pitty and make a way for their deliverance this is unspeakable rich grace that the Lord should as I may say study a course to make them willing to come forth to which end all the sad and fearfull Characters of this bondage in Scripture are to which end is the Law given that sin might appear to be sin and exceeding sinful and the bondage very great that they might thereby see themselves shut up to this end all those sweet invitations and powerfull expostulations with poor sinners in the Gospel O why will ye die why will ye perish and rot in prison since there is a ransom found for you the Lord takes no pleasure in your death and why will ye delight in your own death O what powerfull Rhetorick are these loving intreaties expostulations the yearnings of his bowels over them his tears over Jerusalem when they would not be gathered under his wings and all this to make the poor sinner willing and when all will not do that he should even put forth a power upon their wills and hearts inclining them to it by a sweet and yet strong though not compulsory influence of his Spirit upon them this is admirable what tenderness was there towards Lot that when he lingered and delayed the Angel took him by the hand and brought him without the City and bid him haste for his life truly there is not a soul delivered from this bondage but there is as much exercise of the patience and bowels of Christ toward them to make them willing yea to take them by the hand when they linger and make excuses as those in the Gospel I will follow thee but let me go and bid farewell to my friends I must not come off abruptly from my old Companions in sin but take leave of them handsomly I must go bury my father saith another but the Lord Jesus takes by the hand plucks us out as I may say by head and ears before we will come out Again consider how we have worn out our selves in the bondage and slavery of sin and with these fetters upon our souls or else spent so that now he may even say we our selves may say of our days there is no pleasure in them so Luke 4. 18. to set at liberty them that are bruised Dimittere confractâ—s in remissionem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which words are not in Isaiah 61. neither Hebrew Greek nor Latine but they are added 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by Luke as some conceive â—atabl and others read them vâ—lneratos persons wounded shattered worn out with the hard bondage and service they were put to bondage is a weary thing at the best but when a man is such a slave as that he must like a Gally Slave work like a horse in the service of sin O what pains sinners do take with both hands earnestly they come to iniquity and so exhaust their spirits the best milk and marrow in the bones so that they are as dry sticks that are good for nothing and yet that the Lord Jesus should to such proclaim liberty bring them forth that are able to do him no service in a manner so the thief upon the Cross and so the Jew that Andreas is said to convert hanging upon the Cross and so many a gray headed sinner that never ceased serving sin yet now c. Truly if the Lord Christ should set us free with a respect to any service we should do him afterward I doubt none would ever be set free for Brethren what can we add to him if thou be righteous it profiteth him not at all he is a God infinitely perfect in himself our goodness extends not to him all the best of Lebanon and the wood are not enough for a burnt offering so great a God he is and yet though he be not advantaged by our service when we are set at Liberty but what commandments he giveth us to observe and giveth us hearts inclineth our hearts thereunto they are for our own welfare as in that of Deuteronomy The Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath for his good his advantage and so is all the services or if it were yet alas I say how are we broken many times with the bondage of sin so that we are fit for nothing the understanding and affections so weakned and wasted and besotted with sin that afterward we can do little for him because of that sad effect sin hath left upon our souls and yet he delivereth us this the fourth Vse 5. Then it shall it be for Exhortation and invitation this day to every poor sinner that is in bondage that they would close with this promise that they would go forth O Sinners that you would but accept of Deliverance and Liberty that now the Lord Jesus after so dear a purchase of it doth tender to you you see he is willing he came on purpose into the world to preach and proclaim liberty to the Captives Now art not thou a Captive and hast thou no minde to be set free And for some Motives to stir us up a little at least to a consideration of our condition and what we do all this while First Consider this is the acceptable year of the Lord as in that of Isaiah O it beginneth with the preaching of the Gospel indeed the acceptable year minde you acceptable to Jesus Christ It pleaseth him wondrous well if sinners be willing to come out of prison to be set at liberty there is many a poor soul that thinketh with himself I am willing if the Lord Jesus be willing that I shall go forth O it is the acceptable year of the Lord there is nothing more pleasing to him then to see the ransom he hath laid down for you sinners take effect and bring out many out of bondage the Apostle applyeth it to the times of the Gospel There is joy in heaven c. The Father of the Prodigal how willing was he and then it is the acceptable year to sinners too O how did men that were in bondage long for the Jubilee and breath and pant after it especially if their bondage were hard that set them all free Dear Friends Consider this is the great Jubilee proclaimed solemnly with the Silver Trumpets of the Gospel that every poor creature that will may go forth out of prison yea that if now they go forth the Lord Jesus is willing we should but if we shall trifle away this year of the Lord which we know not how long it may last to us either the Gospel may be taken away from us or else we from the Gospel or else the things which concern our peace in the Gospel be hid from our eyes that we shall never see them O that sinners would but consider this these seasons the Father hath kept in his own power that sinners might be afraid to
more that spirit then dwells in the heart which is his contrary principle lusting against the flesh the more the flesh must needs go down in a soul But the end is that will make up all O the reward will be according to our works when a man is rich towards God hath been faithful in a little faithful in a great deal hath laid up a good foundation against the time to come O how shall such shine in glory Me thinks our eyes should be a little forward the eye of faith as well as altogether backward to Christ and what he hath done for us to what he hath prepared for us and therefore he himself proposeth himself as a pattern to us in this very respect looking unto Jesus the Author and Finisher of our faith having laid aside every weight being set free from this bondage then run looking to Jesus the Author of our Faith who for the joy that was set before him endured the Cross despised the shame endured the clouding of his Fathers face from him that was the weight that made him hang the head it is the proposing of the end that sweetens the means health that is aimed at how it sugars many a bitter potion a man will endure any thing in such a case Well though we may have much ado with our froward and backsliding hearts and be many times wearied with them yet give not over but run work and so work as men set at liberty not in chains chearfully and strongly upon all the former considerations and this will be a right use of our liberty indeed Fifthly Then be not brought under bondage unto men that is to say to have our consciences inslaved either through the fear of men or favour of men surely if the Spirit of Christ be in us as it is if we be his it will free and make us go forth from this bondage You have seen it in all experiences when they threatned the Apostles commanded them they should not preach in that name the Spirit that was in them did break all those bonds though it taught them 〈…〉 ot to rebell to be tumultuous for it is pure and then peaceable the wisdom that is from this Spirit yet it taught them not to regard it whether it be fit to obey God or man judge ye they rejoyced the more that they were accounted worthy to suffer for Christ this wind that bloweth where it listeth it bears down all opposition there is no resisting of that Spirit that speaks and acts in them See the Martyrs how it did triumph over their adversaries they overcame their cruelty by the invincible patience and yielding their bodies to a torment rather then their consciences to the cruel commands of sinners which tend to their wounding Was there ever such a slave as Canaan a servant of servants shall he be when another man a great person is a servant to sin and thou for advantage or fear art a slave to him is not this to be a servant of servants to have this curse upon thy soul in the highest degree to be a slave to a slave is the deepest slavery that can be imagined Therefore take heed lest such a bondage creep upon us at unawares for our hearts are deceitful take heed of sinful compliances with the prevailing evils of the times for advantage this is to be a slave to men and to humours and not to be free-men to Jesus Christ But if you would stand fast in this liberty in all these respects then truly we must see to it that we do not grieve the holy Spirit of Jesus Christ for this is the principle of our liberty where the Spirit of Christ is there is liberty and according to the proportion of his presence with and working in any heart is the liberty and freedom of that soul he first works liberty knocks off the bolts of the soul pulls out of the horrible pit he only answers our doubts satisfieth the soul that is in bondage by witnessing love to the soul by applying the blood of Jesus Christ to the soul this the Spirit doth and he only establisheth the soul in this liberty establish me with thy free Spirit indeed somewhat else may loosen a man as to the outward practise from sin but the Spirit only can loosen the heart from sin and only can dissolve the sodering of corrupt affections whereby our hearts and their sinful objects are sodered and glued together and then the heart is broken from sin as well as for sin nor can any thing else keep up the soul in the enjoyment of that liberty by this Spirit and therefore if we would keep up and maintain our spiritual liberty we must be sure to keep in with the Spirit if we grieve him he will grieve us and leave us to fight with our own strength and fall under sin and so come to bondage again in part to the grief and wounding of our spirits some of us alas it may be thought once we had been free but have been brought into bondage again and held under the power of sin in terrours we are ready to wonder when the lusts we thought had been dead and buried do rise up again captive us to them but wonder not at it for how often is this holy Spirit grieved by us which is the principle of our liberty if we consider this well it will put an end to our admiration if we would keep our liberty not return to bondage grieve not the Spirit First he is grieved when he is neglected and slighted his motions to put us on to such a duty we shift and shuffle and make one excuse or another and will not do it either to set upon a duty we never performed or to do it in another manner then we have done at another time this grieveth him as for instance he puts us on to reprove our Brother for a sin not to suffer sin to lie upon him and we smother it we think it more offendeth another then us or else it is an unthankful office it is the way to lose a friend to be accounted a busie-body we see that men for the most part cannot bear a reproof but they will snarl at least if they do not turn and rent us and bear us upon their backs And therefore we neglect our duty and so for any other now alas how often are we guilty in this kind Secondly Take heed of all impurity uncleanness for he is a pure holy Spirit and will lie clean he cannot endure a nasty place this will grieve him if it be pollution of the flesh or pollution of the spirit if harboured in the heart it will grieve the Spirit and then as a man grieved he departeth that is his grieving indeed properly he is not grieved God is not subject to any passion or fears or sorrows c. because all things are alway present with him he seeth what we would be before he had to do
was big with us and O what sharp travel he had such as never was nor can be the like again and he supplies the nourishment the Word and the Spirit he promiseth shall never depart out of his peoples mouths and this is that the Evangelist hath of his fulness we receive grace for grace the sincere milk of the Word is his he prepareth the sweet cup of consolation in the promises so many precious promises so many breasts a child of God hath to suck continually there he hath prepared nourishment for our faith and so in our tryals and experiences there is nourishment for our faith and for our humility and for our love and all this is from him Secondly But then beside this there is a forming power a power of concoction digestion and assimilation to turn these nourishments into the very substance for so the Apostle Some preach Christ of envy saith he supposing to add affliction to my bonds the Devil and his Angels of light preach Christ but with no good intent not to gain credit but dishonor to the Gospel at the long run we see it by too woful experience well saith the Apostle I know this shall turn to my salvation through your prayer and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ if a man take never so much down if he have not a power to digest it and turn it into substance succum sanguinem he shall never grow by it alas do we not see many live under the Word the sincere milk of the Word and seem to draw as hard at the breast as any hanging upon the Ministers lips that should preserve knowledge and yet grow not come not on there wants this digesting faculty the Spirit of Christ to mix the word with faith then when it is so mixed and concocted it groweth indeed the Word groweth then the poor Believer groweth his faith groweth And so the Apostle in that to the Corinthians who beholding as in a glass there is the nourishment the Ordinances the beholding Christ in them but the power of concocting these turning them to strength is the Spirit we are changed into his image from glory to glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord as there is not similitudinis but identitatis the glory as of the only begotten Son of God full of grace and truth there is the truth in general that it is from Christ and more specially that this power is his in that one place to the Ephesians from whom the whole body fitly joyned together and compacted by that which every joynt supplyeth according to the effectual working in the measure of every part maketh increase of the body he speaks of the growth of the Church in general but there is par ratio for the growth of each member for it is one part of the growing of the whole that the members grow in stature as well as in number and so in that place to the Colossians Let not man beguile you of your reward as a Judge of the race of masteries prescribes it is an exorbitant course to â—un out of the way and then promise you the reward for it this will be but a beguiling of you in a voluntary humility and worship of Angels c. and is worshiping of Saints any better then this voluntary humility and yet some there are that beguile poor creatures of their reward promising them if they run in this course they shall have it not holding the head me thinks an ingenuous Papist reading this should begin to suspect their way since to worship Angels and such voluntary humility as God never commanded as not to approach to Christ without a mediation of Saints which he never commanded is voluntary humility and so this is not to hold the head Christ Jesus from which from the head all the body by joints and bands have nourishment ministred and knit together increaseth with the increases of God it is the increase of God because he is the Author of it or else because of the greatness of the increase and its excellency for so the name of God is often used in the old Scriptures and their phrases the Apostles do often keep in the New You see the nourishment is ministred from the head as the sap is from the root of the tree and it is his effectual working whereby it is turned to an increase of our faith and love and therefore that soul that is not really and truly in the Lord Jesus though he may for a time flourish yet he will wither he may be green and yet be but a weed and they grow fast but they are not upon a right root they spring not from such a seed and therefore at their perfection they will be but wild Oates it may be or Tares which for a great while are so like to Wheat as some of the Antients speak that it is not to be discerned from it until it come into the ear and so many an hypocrite may have as broad a leaf as green a blade in externals not be behind any for enlargements and parts and notions of the knowledge of Christ and yet alas though he had more and more degrees this is not a spiritual growth this is not from the head from the root the Lord Jesus as a root of saving life I deny not but he giveth those gifts and parts but it is not as head of the invisible Church who alone shall be saved though as head of the visible Church there may be a communication of some fatness and sweetness of the Olive to them that is to say the Ordinances and priviledges of the Church which an hypocrite may enjoy yet be cut off when all is done and thereby he may make some progress of knowledge and a formality but yet this is no true spiritual growth this should make us look well about us and see if our water do arise from this fountain it will spread it self until it come to a river grow broader and broader Fifthly As it is from him and therefore we must be in him before we can grow with this spiritual growth so this growth in grace is a growing up into him and good reason if of him and by him be all things that to him should be all things also if Rivers be from the Sea they return to the Sea again there may be two things in this one expression of growing up into Christ who is the head First that we grow up into a nearer fellowship and communion with him who is the head and this is most sure whether the growth of the members where it is the faster do draw more and more yet from the head and other parts where the nourishment is prepared I shall not meddle with but this I am sure of the more grace any soul receiveth the more yet he may it is in order to further fellowship and communion with the Lord Jesus which is indeed an
grew for Jesus Christ And Hezekiah his pride in the business of the King of Babylon how it tended to humble him so much the more do we find it thus doth sin increase our grace increase even by our falls do we get ground of them yea or no if not it is not well with us And thus much shall serve for the tryal The next Vse then will be for Exhortation to us all If we find that we have none of this we grow not at all we are a company of poor formal professors we are at a stand for proficiency we know not what it means I should advise all such Brethren to look to their standing their being in Christ it may be you have been deceived all this while and except you be in him except the Sun of righteousness be risen upon you it is in vain to put you on to grow as to the event though not as to the discharge of our duty A rotten root will not carry the branches on to any increase they may be at a stand a while but they will wither and rot and perish as well as the root look to your foundation Brethren me thinks I should not need to press this upon you you know for the notion as well as it can be told you that except you be in him you can bring forth no fruit much less can you increase in fruitfulness If you do not shut your eyes Brethren wink with them as they in the Gospel did they stopped their eyes lest they should see with them the Sun of righteousness is ready to arise upon you are you willing to have it so would you have him to arise upon you would you be made one with him would you be found in him as the root the head from whence righteousness and holiness proceedeth deceive not your selves Brethren Christ offers himself to you all every one that will may come and take him for his head for his root and so grow up in him if thou wert willing then what is the reason thou art not in him well surely then thou art not willing whatever thou pretendest he would gather thee under his wings as a Hen the Chickens where they grow apace from the heat they are cherished with but ye would not ye would not look to this in the first place Secondly you that are alive through grace and have this union with Christ and yet it may be find you grow little or haply can scarce see that you have grown now will you be exhorted in the name of Jesus Christ in the Apostles words Grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ Labour to improve to come on to be fat and flourishing content not your selves to be babes in Christ no nor young men but grow up to be Fathers The prosecution of this Use the general Exhortation I shall first lay you down some particulars wherein among others specially we are to labour to grow because haply if we rest in generals each hearer hath not his skill to bring it to particulars Secondly the motives to enforce it And thirdly some general helps to growth and then come to some other Exhortations First then for the first wherein specially we are to look to our growth and first in knowledge we must â—ook to it that we grow in the first place as the Apostle hath it in that forecited place Grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ Knowledge is not here put by way of contradistinct from grace as if it were no grace but as being that special grace which doth so much promote and further the growth of all grace beside the Papists tell us ignorance is the mother of devotion and that faith is better defined by ignorance then by knowledge but the Holy-Ghost cals faith knowledge by his knowldege shall my righteous servant justifie many that is faith sure and this is life eternal to know thee the only true God now do but observe it they boast themselves so much of Peter and how little they own him in this point for saith he grow in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ the knowledge of a crucified Christ Now saith the Papists this is the way to errour and schism and ignorance is the mother of devotion just as the Jews made their boast of Moses and our Saviour confuteth them by Moses whom they so much boasted of there is one who accuseth you even Moses in whom you trust for if ye had believed Moses ye had believed me for he wrote of me So there will be one that will accuse them in this point of knowledge even Peter in whom they trust So the Apostle that ye may grow up in him speaking the truth in love the speaking the truth in love is the way to grow up in Christ and so the receiving the truth and the receiving of it in love a well-qualified knowledge of Jesus Christ and him crucified and therefore the Apostle desired to know nothing among them but this if they knew Christ and him crucified this knowledge would produce whatever else is requisite for them not by its own power but the Spirit of grace carrying it on And so the Apostle to the Colossians increasing in knowledge or the acknowledgment of God and strengthened with all might according to his glorious power to all patience and long-suffering with joy So the wise man himself tells us a wise man is strong yea a man of understanding increaseth strength Why but you will say may there not be much knowledge and yet little grace and therefore is this too necessary to grow in knowledge I answer It is true there may be much knowledge where there is little grace as in many an hypocrite and many know much but they know nothing as they ought to know it but yet however there cannot be grace without knowledge a compe 〈…〉 t considerable knowledge of Jesus Christ and him crucified Fuel may be where there is no fire but the fire will not burn nor continue if there be no fuel knowledge is as I may say the very oyl the very fuel wherein the flame of the Spirit liveth in the soul do but observe it grace and truth came by Jesus Christ grace and truth therefore grace aboundeth now in the time of the Gospel he came that they might live and live more abundantly because he came to reveal the truth in a more clear full manner then before when the vail is taken away saith the Apostle that was upon the face then beholding Christ with open face we are changed into his image from glory to glory and truly there is all the reason that can be for it for whereby grace is begotten by the same means it must needs be preserved and increased Now it is by the knowledge of the truth that we are begotten to God therefore the Spirit is promised to be sent
Christians are become meer Atheists how many have suffered a great abatement in their zeal and vigour and life and closeness of walking with God by this means O therefore take heed of falshood at the beginning 3. Take we heed of learning their ways by conversing with dead-hearted Professors where there is not that life and power that light and heat but a cold luke-warm frame for such as our Company is such shall we be in a great measure why must men make no friendship with an angry man lest he learn his ways And truly brethren a formal Professor a loose Professor that hath little of the power of Godliness upon him he is a quench-coal and by degrees you shall find your selves growing to a more listless indifferency then before therefore though you may pity them pray for them stir them up and provoke them as occasion serveth yet that inward familiarity as to lie in their bosoms which will be followed with a conformity to them take heed of you shall find it will work a declining 4. Take heed of deceiving our selves with false measures and weights The Apostle tell us of some that compared themselves with themselves and were not wise or comparing themselves with some others which are haply behind them this maketh them slack So the Church of Laodicea what was the reason of their lukewarmness they lost their love the heat and burning of their Lamps were gone whatever light they had why they thought they were rich and had need of nothing they needed not that eye-salve to buy of Christ nor gold nor raiment O this is the desperate undoing sin indeed when men think now O they bless God they are rich it is for others to press forward they need not walk so painfully as others their corruptions are more subdued then others Si dixisti sufsiciat periisti See Phil. 3. I forget what is behind c. 5. Arm your selves against the smiles and discouragements of the world for though like Sampsons foxes they look with their faces contrary waies yet the effect is one and the same not to fire but to quench that light and heat that is in a believer for the smiles of the world are her embraces she doth use to smother with them and as I may say overlay a soul when Davids mountain was made strong and by Gods favour too then he began to be secure to fal asleep and his Lamp was almost gone when God hid his face from him his comfort was lost in a great measure How many Demas's are there which forsake the work of Christ for this present world yea indeed many that can endure the frowns of the world yet are overcome by her smiles Jesurun kicked not nor forgot the God of her salvation so much as when she waxed fat So in that of Nehemiah they took strong Cities and a fat land and possessed houses full of all wels digged vineyards and olive-yards and fruit-trees in abunndance so they did eat and were filled and became fat and delighted themselves in the great goodness notwithstanding they were disobedient and rebelled against thee and cast thy Law behind their backs c. and slew the Prophets which testified against them O watâ—h against this take heed we do not abate our earnestness after more and more of Christ lest while we are panting like the Hart after the water brooks we take up with a drop for all the Creature-comforts in the world are no more and our thirst after spirituals be more cooled and we solace our selves under our Guord instead of the Aple-tree the sweet shadow of Christ And to this end alway keep fresh upon your hearts the love of Jesus his smiles when the Diamond is present the Load-stone cannot draw Again Arm we our selves against the frowns of the world discouragements we must expect to meet with sooner or latter specially if we do not like a hollow-hearted bulrush bow and bend and comply with every thing a notable embleme of an Hypocrite If we stand firm like an Oke or Cedar we shall feel strong gusts It may be some of us have known what they meant and some have had experience of their weakness to bear up against them O how should this humble us and make â—s double our watch Satan will raise a storm if the Lord permit him thinking on a sudden to blow out our Lamps but we must arm against it and be sure to go on though it be weeping As the Milch-kine that carried the Ark up from the Philistins to Bethlehem they had their Calves left at home which were a strong avocation and yet saith the Text they went strait forward lowing and lamenting after their Calves but yet they went forward It may be we may be put to it as that Marquess of Vioum in Italy even Galeacius that forsook house and lands and wife and children and all for Christ It may be we cannot do it without some reluctancy yet it must be done it may be we shall have many discouragements from our own hearts strong temptations violent temptations haply more then ever yet we have had so that we cannot go on but weeping and wailing yet resolve upon it by his grace however we will go on such a well-grounded resolution often renewed with a waiting upon the Spirit for his strength to perform it will carry a man on far 6. Be sure not to neglect the Ordinances of Christ nor be slight in the using of them And one of the two I doubt we are often guilty of and therefore we may thank our selves for much of the deadness that groweth upon us daily these are the golden Pipes whereby this Oyl is conveyed continually from the Lord Jesus for the keeping our Lamps alive and lively Would you not wither but continue your verdour and greenness you must keep close to the waters of the Sanctuary they shall be like Trees planted by the rivers of water his leaf shall never fail he that delights in the Law of God meditates in it day and night there is private conversation with God And they that are planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the Courts of our God yea in old age they shall flourish and bâ—ing forth more abundantly when many times it is the declining time A diligent careful serious use of all the Ordinances with an eye to faith seeing through them all but as empty pipes without his presence to fill them this exceedingly conduceth 7. Be sure your aim be as high as heaven and the perfection which shall be at the resurrection of the dead So the Apostle Nâ—t that I count that I have attained but I press hard forward and all his diligence was that he might attain the resurrection of the dead by a Metonymie of the Adjunct it is put for the perfection of that 〈…〉 aâ—e at the resurrection see how high he aimed at and therefore he did not languish nor
them This is just like the foolish Virgins Brethren the Lord deliver poor souls from such an end as God made with them as you have it in the Parable here It is the way indeed to stop our mouths to hang too much upon any creature 3. It may be we are a little better instructed many of us then to think that men can give grace But it may be we expect it from Ordinances which alas are but empty pipes though they be golden and precious pipes this opus operatum sticks closer to us then we are aware many of us I doubt If men did not look for it from Ordinances would they not labour to bring better frames of heart with them and bring the Lord along with them to the Ordinances that his presence might fill them Well let us take heed of this Brethren sit not down by broken Cisterns for they all say it is not in us the Word saith and Prayer saith and Receiving saith it is not in us we can give no more then we have we are but the means And therefore let us all learn to be wise in this point to salvation go where it is to be had to the Fountain his fulness Jesus Christ is the Olive Tree he that emptieth himself into the golden pipes O therefore in all our wants of grace make out to him eye him in every Ordinance the fatness and sweetness must come from the root and not the branches therefore look to it Brethren that we be in him abide in him live by faith in him in Ordinances above them Yea when we have most refreshings in them remember who it is that hath filled them lest when all is done we prove our selves but foolish Virgins But so much for this Doctrine Verse 9. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 HEre we have the wise Virgins answer to the foolish Virgins request their request was that they might have some of their oyl because their Lamps were gone out to this the wise Virgins answer wherein we must note concerning the reading of the words they may be read two waies either by way of redundancy yiélding to the cutting off that particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but go you rather to them that sell and then the words are read thus lest there be not enough for you and us go you rather to them that sell Or else by way of Elypsis they are read and then the defect is to be supplyed as in our translation not so lest there be not enough for you and us not so are not expressed in the Original but are supplyed as you see they are written in another Character Such defective speeches are ordinary in Scripture as in that of Abraham and Sarah when Abimilech asked him What saist thou that thou hast done this thing and he said because I thought that surely the fear of God is not in this place and they will slay me for my wives sake here somewhat is to be supplyed his resolution to dissemble his wife that is concealed and supposed and only the reason expressed and so it is here Now which way ever we read the words the sense is the same still and in both the denyal is implyed and but implyed yet necessarily implyed for without it the sense is not full nor clear as if we should read them thus lest there be not enough for you and us but go and buy for your selves there is not a compleat sense but read them either of the other waies and the sense is full and plain as by adding the denyal as in our Bibles not so lest there be not enough or else by cutting off that but that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thus lest there be not enough for us and you go and buy for your selves here the denyal is implyed also and must be understood But because generally they are read as in that translation by the most learned and godly as Beza Grotius So then the denyal being here necessarily supposed and supplyed from thence I would take up this Note They that go to the Saints for grace for oyl are like to have a denyal Here at last they went to them when they had spent their time and opportunity of getting grace they go to the wise Virgins for grace but they were too wise to give an yielding answer to such a request Indeed so far is that rock the Lord Jesus higher then we that we are exceeding prone rather to take up nearer and any where ready to hang our hopes upon every hedge You see the Prodigal as long as ever he could hold out he would never come unto his Father The poor man in the Cospel brought his child to the Disciples first to have him healed before they went to Christ until they found them empty that they were Physitians of no value healing was not in them and so it is with us all If we can have grace by any other means we would not come to Christ such is our natural enmity against him such is our despondency many times when we come to be sensible of our condition But alas every creature if they understand themselves must needs say it is not in me to give as Peter said in another case of healing Why look you upon us as if we had healed this man by our holiness But let me give you some few considerations to make it out and then we will apply it First then It is above their fulness though many a child of God have a great fulness of grace indeed be ye filled with the Spirit and not with wine saith the Apostle and so that you may be filled with all the fulness of God there may be an abounding of grace yea of all grace towards them that in all things alway they might have an all-sufficiency though I think there are but very few that here below do know by experience such a fulness by comprehending the height and depth and breadth and length of this love of Jesus Christ but suppose every child of God be thus filled every wise Virgin sooner or later yet it is not a fulness of redundancy that is to say such a fulness as that from it there can be spared any thing for another as we shall add by and by It is but the fulness of a Cistern not of a Fountain which can still shed abroad and be full still So it pleased the Father that all fulness should dwell in Jesus Christ All fulness that of his fulness we might receive grace for grace Of his fulness he is the fulness of the Sun the fulness of a Sea of a Fountain and such is no creatures fulness there can be no redundance Secondly As their fulness is not enough so also have they not a strength and power to communicate of their grace to another no more then a man can devide and part his life between him and another that is dead it is above his power and therefore in Scripture usually it