Fountain open for sin and for uncleanness is very precious to that Leper which indeed and from his heart cryeth out unclean Vse 4 The last Use of this Doctrin is for Exhortation Be at this practise with this Apostle of panting and groaning under the Body of Death when the poor Woman with the Bloody Issue saw that she was not hid she came trembling to Christ Luk. 8.47 and confessed her condition and how long it had been so with her and what ineffectual means she had used and yet wasted all on them Though your corrupt nature be hid from the eyes of men and from your own eyes much to much yet not in the least hid from the eyes of Christ and therefore come trembling to him and confess all your vileness to him as far as you are able but alas what a hard task do I mention 〈◊〉 and how long you have layne in this forlorne state and do as Beggars by the High-ways sides pull off all Plaisters from every soar and take heed of hiding any sin with Fig-leaves as your Father Adam let the great Physician see and know all every putrefied soar that is not bound up nor mollified with oyntment and who knoweth but his eye may move his heart towards you to pity you and to play the good Samaritan and to dress your filthy souls and soars and to anoint them and mollifie them This I think is the meaning of the Prophet Isa 42.18 Hear ye deaf and look ye blinde that ye may see This is a proper work for every sinner to be at to bleed and mourn inwardly for the Fountain of sin that is in him and to bewail the many springs of wickedness which boil up bad matters Night and Day in his Soul to the grieving of the Holy Spirit Hearken to me ye that follow after righteousness ye that seek the Lord look to the roots whence ye were hewen Isa 51.1 to the hole of the Pit whence ye are digged meaning Abraham who was an Idolater and dead in trespasses and sins as well as others The Body of Death is the hole of the Pit out of which cometh all the Frogs and Locusts which crawle and swarm in your lives Many Professors not bewailing this well and throughly as they should build a brave House to look on but on the Sand which with storms falleth and the fall thereof is great The time of loss is to be lookt into and considered Damni dati tempus inspicitur And how old is our loss of God's Image How inveterate is our wound How old is the old Man as old as Methusalah The old man came into the World with you and a Miracle it is that it had not with its great weight like a Mill-stone about your Necks pressed you to your place long ago yea the old man came into the World with this world that now is and with the other world that is drowned and it will bring this to the Fire at last and from burning to burning it is very proper work to be casting tears upon such sparks as will burn to the lowest Hill Secondly 'T is needful work this to know every Man the Plague of his own heart To know it that is to sigh and groan under it as here the Apostle Paul doth When Daniel had received that sad Vision of Nebuchadnezar's ruin the lopping down of that tall Tree which reached to Heaven and the sad condition of a beast which he was to be cast into Daniel remained speechless for one hour and his thoughts troubled him and he was not able to say a word to the King but sighed and lookt sad Dan. 4.19 And an hour more it may be he would have stood sad and sighing before the King and silent if the King had not forced matter from him And this carriage was very needful to set home things upon the King's heart and to make him look about him well And would I could so preach to all you this Day and in this place who are in your natural condition If I were silent now for one hour more and did only sigh over all you carnal and unregenerate Men and Women and look sad and sometimes mourn would it not be very needful as hearts are now heardened well and deeply to affect you Certainly it would so make you look about you well before the great Lopper death come 'T is very needful work for you and me to be at this oft-bewailing our fallen state and the body of this death because we are become as Nebuchadnezar by his fall Beasts that perish even we that were in honour in higher honour than Nebuchadnezar was before his fall We are become as Beasts in some respects and much worse than Beasts in other respects We are in this state without Christ aliens from the Common-wealth of Israel strangers from the Covenant of Promise having no hope and without God in the World which he calls upon every one to remember Ephes 2.11 12. Wherefore remember that ye in times past were thus and thus c. Thirdly This is to go to the Root of our Disease to lay an Axe to the Root The Apostle was wise when he fell upon the main body of wickedness in him Son of man cause Jerusalem to know her abominations and say Thus saith the Lord God unto all Jerusalem thy Birth and thy Nativity is of the Land of Canaan thy Father was an Amorite and thy Mother an Hittite and thy Navel was not cut nor salted c. Ezek. 16.2 3. You cannot know your abominations as you should that is be affected with them as you should unless you look to the Root from whence they all spring and fix your eyes and your hearts there well according to this wholesome instruction of the Lord. We are by nature Amorites and Hittites as wilde as any Children of wrath as well as others and in us i.e. In our nature dwelleth no good but the seeds of all wickedness and until we thus go to the bottom we do in our humiliations but skin over soares and not search and cleanse them well This this Apostle calleth for 1 Cor. 5.7 Purge out therefore the old leaven what a deal a-do there was to search out leaven and to get totally rid of it among the Jews much is said of it the Apostle would have us as industrious about corrupt nature which he calleth old leaven in all our humiliations wherein there should be soul-examinations that we should fall close upon our evil hearts and state within and smite upon them and cry out much upon them Damni dans causam damnum ipsum dedisse videtur The old leaven is the cause of all the sins and miseries we daily fall into This this therefore we should especially bewail and labour about to pluck up the root of bitterness Fourthly There is no dealing with any actual sin without effectual dealing with the body of sin To go to lave a Pool and not first to deal with the
on many of judicial hardness of heart Isa 6.10 11 12. Make the heart of this People fat and their ears heavy and shut their eyes lest they see with their eyes and hear with their eares and understand with their hearts and convert and be healed Then I said Lord how long and he answered till the Cities be wasted without Inhabitants and the Houses without Men and the Land be utterly desolate and the Lord have removed Men far away and there be a great forsaking in the midst of the Land This will be a strong reproof indeed if this should be the reproof upon us and yet very pleasing Vse 3 Try your selves by this Doctrine Are you deeply sensible of natural corruption If so then it is your only burden Of all perils and distresses though Paul had many did the Apostle complain as here of the Body of Death Do you any where read him say O wretched man that I am I am poor I am in Prison Who shall deliver me out of these sad conditions Alas he made nothing of hunger of nakedness of stripes of deaths oft but gloried in them But the body of this death that made him fetch deep sighs O wretched man that I am he never called himself so for any bodily evil whatsoever The Israelites were enjoyn'd when they came with their first fruits to make a solemn confession of their great unworthiness of God's great bounty and goodness A Syrian ready to perish was my Father and he went down into Egypt and sojourned there with a few Deut. 26.5 If you be deeply sensible then this is the allay in all your glory still in all your mirth this is the qualm that comes over your heart that makes it sad what a wretch ready to perish came I into this holy and good Land And why should such a dead Dog as I be treated thus with grace which abuse all that is bestowed on me Thus you look back to the hole of the Pit out of which digged daily and sigh if deeply sensible Secondly If you be deeply sensible of natural corruption then are you very vile in your own eyes I am more vile saith Agar than any man David calls himself a Beast and the Cananitish Woman owns her self to be a Dog and if Christ had called her a Viper a Toad a Monster no doubt she would have owned it If I wash me with Snow water and make me never so clean yet shall thou plunge me in the ditch and mine own cloaths shall abhor me Job 9.31 If ye be indeed sensible of your naughty state by nature ye are Persons of low eyes ye think the Cloaths ye wear too good for you because ye defile them the Meat you eat too good for you because to the unclean all things are unclean and the Earth too good to bear you because you are such a great load of filth such a going Dunghill If ye be indeed sensible of natural corruption ye are poor in Spirit unworthy that Christ or any good thing should come under your root This Apostle means all this when he calls himself a wretch labouring under a Body of Death The Leper under the Law and the Person with a Running Issue how low and loathsome were they in their own eyes loath and ashamed to come neer nay to come in fight of any one Thirdly If ye be deeply sensible of natural corruption then ye are as this Apostle in my Text at an utter loss in your selves what to do for deliverance from the guilt and power of it O wretched man that I am Who shall deliver me I am utterly to seek to save my self so is all the Creation I cannot deliver my self and who of all the Creatures of God in Heaven or in Earth that can deliver me To which of the Saints or Angels shall I turn So the Prophet Isaiah saw himself at an utter loss upon the sense of his vile condition Then said I woe is me for I am undone because I am a man of unclean lips Isa 6.5 He saw no way but one with him I am cut off So is the reading in the Margent I am gone and lost utterly now the holy God hath seen what an unholy wretch I am he hath got a view of me and a sent of me and surely he will think on it for ever what an ugly sight he saw and what a filthy smell he smelt Do you feel your selves undone by sin by reason of this Running Issue and that in your nature Are ye a burden to your selves because a burden and grief to the Holy Spirit of God Or are you not clean and pure in your own eyes and cock-sure ye shall go to Heaven when you die you have lived so well amongst all your neighbours and have done so much good and every one speaks so well of you Can such a state do amiss Our Saviour saith the whole need no Physician and that he came to save lost ones such who are so deeply possessed with the signe and sense of their sinful state by nature and life and conversation that they cry out Who will deliver me wretched me most sinful and forlorne me Isaac was at a loss for an Offering and doubtless thought at last that he must be burnt Fourthly If ye be deeply sensible of the body of death then ye prise deliverance from it above all this World Naaman the Syrian how he prised any Person or means that could cure his Leprosie And the Man-slayer how he prized and pursued the City of refuge And what would not one of those pursued Man-slayers have given for but one Foot within the Gate of the City of refuge To them that are under the deep sense of sin the Redeemer that is come from Zion to turn away ungodliness from Jacob is very precious O how precious was Christ to this Apostle which my Text mentioneth as you read in the next Verse O wretched Man that I am Who shall deliver me I thank God through Jesus Christ As a Man almost drowned having some one that can swim leaping in and taking hold of him O how doth he thank God for this friend I The Apostle Paeul being deeply sensible of his wretched state by nature did so esteem Christ that the truth is he esteem'd all else in comparison but as dung and dross Nebuchadnezar which was brought as a Beast from grass from creeping upon all four O how he magnified the true God for a while So doth that sinner magnifie and extoll Christ Dan. 4.34 that is brought from crawling like a Toad upon all four in the filth and poison of his natural corrupt on The black crabbed Tree of the Cross hath made Christ and my Soul very entire saith Mr. Rutherford He is my Song in the Night So I say the black Crab-stock of natural corruption maketh Christ and that sinner very dear and entire and his Song in dark Night who is in the pains and travels of natural corruption The
give him a stone This is reason But much more can faith help it self by experience I am a man in authority and I say to one man go and he goeth and I say to another come and he cometh c. This is experience and faith is wonderful weak indeed when it cannot thus help up it self experiences are such sensible and such impressive things upon all powers within and without O ye of little faith do ye not remember the five loaves and how many Baskets ye took up Mat. 16. Christ takes it for granted that faith is very little and very weak indeed when it cannot help it self by experiences things which the Man hath had done for him in his wants He delivered me from the Lyon and the Bear and he will deliver me from this uncircumcised Philistim The Lord even Jesus who appeared to thee in the way he hath sent that thou mightest receive thy sight and be filled with the Holy Ghost Act. 9.17 Doubtless that experience which he had of such an escape going to Damascus advantaged his faith all his days to look thorow and to run thorow all the storms and perils which afterward he met withall Some great sickness the Apostle Paul had by the ill usage of Men who oppressed him and yet God preserved and how he raised faith by experience to look thorow all evils present and to come see 2 Cor. 1.9 10. We would not have you ignorant of the troubles which happen'd unto us in Asia how that we were pressed out of measure above strength insomuch that we despaired ever of life but we had the sentence of death in our selves that we should not trust in our selves but in God that raiseth the dead who deliver'd us from so great a death and doth deliver in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us Mordecai is called Pethakia because saith the Jews he opened and expounded all matters and understood 70 Languages Experience may be called Pethakiah it doth so interpret all Ridles and dark matters both of the word and works of God it explains and interprets 70 and 70 Languages if there be so many worth the interpreting it makes a Man with ease and triumph to look thorow and over all before it though never so dark and difficult as David over Goliah and Zerubabel over that great Mountain which was before him and Joshuah the High Priest over sin and Satans occasions Is not this a brand pluckt out of the Fire Fourthly By Prayer doth a believer come to this good eye-sight to look thorow all dark and difficult matters When I cry to thee then shall mine enemies turn back this I know for God is for me Psal 56.9 David had cryed to God as one once did a little before an engagement and he knew he should have the day and that his enemies would turn their backs great clearing of fight is made by prayer and tears in dark days to see thorow matters A little wind overthrows not only Houses but States and Kingdoms saith Seneca A little of this wind I mean the pantings and prayings of God's People to Heaven overthrows Persons and Nations indeed and is a sure prognostick of good to whom a praying spirit is given and makes in the heart an assurance of good coming My soul followeth hard after thee thy right hand upholdeth me then observe what he saw Those that seek my soul to destroy it shall go into the lower parts of the Earth Psal 63.8 9. Whether that were Hell or the Grave or both 't was well the Church and David were rid of them Prayer is an Ordinance by which the Soul goeth to Heaven and then gets a new life and strength before it comes down again Christ found the blessing of this Ordinance oft and hath surely sanctified it to all his for the same end to lift up their heads and hearts above all troubles He shall cry unto me thou art my Father my God the Rock of my Salvation and I will make him my first born higher than the Kings of the Earth Psal 89.26 The whole course of Nature began with the motion of the Heavens and continues still vigorous according to the continued motion of them Now as the motion of the Heavens is to the whole course of Nature so is Prayer to all the graces of the Soul and to the whole course and state of the new World it is this that sets all graces a going and going true and strong let weather be what it will Hence are those pertinent words of David Trust in the Lord at all times ye People pour out your hearts before him God is a refuge for us Selah Psal 62.8 He maketh these subservient one to another faith to prayer and prayer to faith as indeed they are Would you trust in the Lord at all times then pour out your souls to God Would you pour out your souls to God and pray alway then trust in the Lord at all times Hence it is that the Apostle Paul when he had spoken at a great height of faith Who hath delivered and doth deliver in whom we trust that he will yet deliver c. You also helping together for us by Prayer 2 Cor. 1.11 Prayer mounts faith upon its high places and faith mounts prayer and makes one pray in his praying Unbelief is soul-fainting and prayer is a fetching fresh life from the Fountain of Life Have mercy upon me O Lord consider my troubles which I suffer of them that hate me thou that liftest me up from the gates of death Psal 13. that is Soul and Body Vse 1 Learn from hence that if faith looketh through the most dark and difficult things then where faith is not troubled People and distressed People must needs be at a great loss especially in great distresses yea the truth is in every little distress every little tryal will sinck them in whom is no faith I cannot well give the reason of it some things contemptible are very vertual to cure great diseases of which none are able to give a reason Unless this that faith twines it self with God to do for Man and all other natural abilities bear up little because they lead not the sinner out of himself but to trust in some thing of the Creature and very little burdens will break the back of a meer Man though his reason and parts and outward helps may be many Saul was bid to stay till Samuel came to him and Samuel stayed but a little beyond his time consequently his tryal was but little and he falls upon things and ways unlawful to his ruine He that believes not will make hast because he cannot see through any strait The Philistines were neer and thou didst not come and therefore 't was in vain for me to wait so Saul reasoned within himself and so will every Man that is destitute of faith Achan having no faith could not forbear but would be providing for himself when as God was before them and
the Sun as seven days Isa 30.26 For the saith they shall be truly penitent and cast away their Idols i.e. their dearest lusts as a menstruous cloath saying Get ye hence vers 22. And the slaughters of all our Idols and the Mould wherein they are cast to wit our corrupt nature these are the great slaughters and high imaginations and proud affections boiling over yet subdued these are the high Towers and strong Holds falling It was Christ that said to Man and Woman Let them have dominion over-the Fish in the Sea and Fowls in the Heavens and over all the Works of God's hands So it is Christ that saith to fallen man let him have dominion over sin and Satan that leads it let it be by what cunning strong temptation soever let him rule over the Devil and all the works of his hands and let him put all under his Feet Secondly As to the body of this death i.e. as to the guilt of sin that whereby as a Transgressor of God's will Man stands bound over to the Judgment of the great Day to Eternal wrath and condemnation Christ is the proper remedy as to this also to cancil every bond and hand-writing of the Law and Conscience against us and to make us stand spotless before the Throne of the great and most Holy God See Zech. 13.1 In that Day there shall be a Fountain opened to the House of David and to the Inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness By sin is meant guilt which Christ taketh away by his blood and uncleanness means the filth of our corrupt nature which Christ purgeth by his Spirit which is a Spirit of Judgment and Burning Of this I have spoken in the last head I was upon I have now only to shew you that Christ cureth the body of this death that is the guilt which we continually contract by our corrupt state and the obligation which this maketh to the wrath of God both in this World and in the World to come and setteth us in favour above That Christ doth this for fallen Man see Dan. 9.24 Seventy weekâ— are determined upon thy People and upon thy holy City to finish the transgression and to make an end of sin and to make reconciliation for iniquity and to bring in everlasting righteousness and to seal up the Vision and the Prophesie c. And to anoint the most Holy c By the Transgression here mentioned is meant the Jews killing of Christ and wishing his blood upon them and by sealing up the Vision and the Prophesie means the accomplishing of what God had shewed this Prophet and other Prophets concerning the Incarnation and death of Christ At such a time he shall come in Man's nature and at such a time he shall die and by his death make an end of wickedness that is as to the reigning power of it and as to the obliging power of it For as if this Prophet had said He shall by his death satisfie the Justice of God and dying as such a spotless Lamb and Sacrifice as one that hath fulfilled all God's wills as one indeed after his own heart he shall impute all this as theirs who shall believe on him and so procure their pardon the favour of God and an everlasting righteousness and well-pleasingness before God and so make an end of guilt utterly that if it be sought for it shall no where be found The Apostle Peter also confirmeth this that Christ cureth the body of this death i. e the guilt of fin For Christ suffered once for sin the Just for the unjust that he might bring us to God 1 Pet. 3.12 That he might bring us to God that is That he might reconcile us to and bring us into favour with God Thirdly It is supposed by the complaint of this wretched state that the Apostle would have a better His complaint of sin and depravation and the loss of God's Image supposeth that he would have holiness and God's Image lost restored now as to this also Christ is the proper remedy as to destroy the old Man so to restore the new as it is he that binde the strong man and spoileth all his goods so it is he that creates the new man which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness He that sanctifieth and they that are sanctified are all one for which cause he is not ashamed to call them Brethren Heb. 2.11 He it is that sanctifieth and we are they which are sanctified and all this is of one by the same Blood and Spirit by which as such an undertaker of our sin he sanctified himself by the merit and efficacy of the same he sanctifieth us who are not sinners meerly by imputation and deputation as he was but inherently Christ's Blood and Spirit is the Laver of regeneration and the Fullers Soap that maketh us white and changeth our black-more skin The Earth was without form and voâ—d tohu bohu and the Spirit of Christ fluttered upon it and brought it in a little time to such a glorious new thing than what it was in its first Creation So it is the same Spirit of Christ that fluttereth upon our Souls which by nature are anoâ—her Chaos and maketh them a new Creation To this I think the Apostle pointeth 2 Cor. 4.6 From whom I borrow this Metaphor But God who causes the light to shine out of darkness c. It was to Christ that the Father spake Come let us make Man in our Image and it is he and the Father that work hitherto by the Holy Ghost that speak one to another Come let us quicken this dead Soul and make him stand up from the dead and bear our Name in his Forehead our similitude and likeness When the Prophet Ezekiel had said that David should be their Prince for ever meaning Christ he further saith in the Person of this David to wit Christ The Heathen shall know that I the Lord do sanctifie Israel when my Sanctuary shall be in the midst of them for ever more Ezek. 37.25.28 compared It is this Zerubbabel's hand that laid the Foundation and it is his hand that finisheth it and therefore the charge is that none despise the little small beginings of it though never so small As Christ can remove guilt and filth in one day which is much rubbish indeed So he can make a new Creature as soon if he please He made the Thief a new man quickly and carried him to Heaven with Him that Day He made Him and finished Him and Housed Him and all in a Day He made but a Days work nay but a few Houres work to finish Grace and Glory These things of the new state doth Christ and so as not to be undone He shall not fail or be discouraged till he have set Judgment in the Earth and the Iles shall wait for his Law Isa 42 4. There be many discouraging things in the removal of natural corruption as in any work I know enough
of my mind all the Day I know not at Night where my mind hath been all the Day it hath been at this and at that at the end of the Earth but not in Heaven all the Day Children run not more from one toy to another in their action than I do in my thoughts and affections and dwell upon nothing that is good scarce a moment My understanding is darkned I know not God I know not his Son I know not the Fathers Name nor the Sons I know not the Scriptures both Testaments are a sealed Book to me I know not the Volume that is always open to me in my own Closet I know not my self nor the deceit and guile that desperately stirs in my heart continually A vail is on my heart always as to all these necessary things to be known And as my Eyes be boared out like Samson's as I have no knowledge so I have less affection I am wholly alienated from the Life of God no spiritual life and heat in my heart but as dead as Nabal yea not only a dead heart but a stony heart twice dead ten times dead nothing will make sense neither words nor blows as if I were utterly past all capacity of feeling as a Stone is This is the poor and needy seeking Water and finding none Fourthly Then when you have thus told out your broken story to your Physician then cast your selves upon Him and tell him you do so Honour his ability and all sufficiency to do as great Cures as yours is though you have not faith enough to honour his willingness to undertake your case So did the poor Leper Lord if thou wilt I know thou art able to make me whole Me though a Leper God thy Father hath highly exalted thee and given thee a Name above every name Power and ability above all to open Prisons to lead Captivity Captive to relieve the Poor to bind up broken hearted Thou canst whip out all the Worldly lusts which swarm in my heart all the mony-changing thoughts and affections which make my Soul common and lean and ill favoured There be many great and precious Promises which God hath made and the scope of them is that I should be cleansed from all filthiness of Flesh and Spirit and have a Divine and holy nature given me and thou O Christ art to make all these Promises yea and Amen unto me and art able to do it if thou wilt yea even in my very filthy Soul Why then is it not done Touching Christ's ability see Gen. 2.5 And every Plant before it was in the Earth and every Herb before it grew for the Lord had not made it to rain and there was not a Man to Till the ground The meaning is that Christ the Creator of all things the Eternal Word by which the Father commanded all things to be was not beholding to Nature or Art to make any thing that was made or to preserve it when made he made the Plants and Herbs before they were in the Earth that is he gave the Earth such a formative Vertue to shape such Plants and Flowers in her Womb and then without Rain or Man's Tillage and dressing did he preserve these for Man nor Rain were not yet created when these Plants and Herbs were actually in Beeing by his bare Word did he both make all Plants and Herbs and by the same bare Word without Rain or Tillage of Man did he make them grow and subsist Such is the Power of Christ's Word as to any distress of the Soul to raise the dead to cure the lame and blind Then in the next Place trust that it shall be done unto thee as thou needest and according to the ability of this All-sufficient Agent that he will say to thee as to the Leper I will be thou clean Adam and his Wife perceived that they were naked and were ashamed and hid themselves there Gen. 3.7 and this shame was a blessed forerunner of the great good which immediately follow the revelation of Christ to them and the Promise and the enabling of them to take hold of them For blessed are the poor in Spirit for theirs is the Kingdom of God If God hath opened your eyes to perceive that you are naked wretched and miserable and to groan under it as the Apostle Paul and to be ashamed of your nakedness as our first Parents and that this maketh you tremble and at an utter loss crying out Who shall deliver you 't is a sure sign that God is at hand to reveal Christ to you as he did to Adam and as he did to Paul therefore excite faith even from thy despair by and by some or other will hear thee say I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord am I escaped Motives particularly to press you to deceive and follow these Exhortations are these three First You who groan and sigh with this Apostle O wretched Man and Woman that I am c. You are particularly and specially invited as it were by name to come to Christ and to trust that he is both able and willing yea and cannot do otherwise but relieve you who ever he passeth by Come unto me all ye that are wearied and heavy loaded and ye shall finde rest to your Souls The Promise expresses to all such as you that ye shall finde relief full relief rest to your restless Souls Luk. 11.28 In this Promise observe the universality of the Invitement Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy loaded i. e. which cry out as the Apostle in my Text as lost and undone O wretched man c. All you by name are invited and therefore it will be your sin and shame not to come to Christ that is to trust that he will undertake your case and do you good Therefore as the Apostle saith as to his sufficiency so say I as to his will Having such a High Priest let us draw nigh with a true heart in full assurance of faith So say I having such a merciful High Priest yea and having such a high and precious Promise let all burdened and heart-loaded sinners draw nigh to Christ with full assurance of faith that he will give them rest Where promises are so particularly directed it is much indulgence and as a stretching out the Hand and Scepter to Esther to welcome and embolden the trembling doubting sinner yea it is as the Father of the Prodigals beholding him afar off and running to meet him Secondly Consider that Christ is not meerly under the Bond of his Promise to relieve such though this he cannot break as he cannot lie but he is under the bond of much affection in this work Husbands love your Wives as Christ loved his Church and gave himself for it that he might sanctifie and cleanse it with the washing of water by the Word that he might present it to himself spotless Ephes 5.26 No Husband can with more natural affection tender and succour the Wife of
which God inflicts sometimes upon the Sons of Men yea upon his own Children Secondly This Metaphor is to set forth the numbers and troops of trials wherewith God punisheth his sometimes and the number can as well be numbered as the nature be fathomed you can as well fathom the bottomless Ocean as number the Waves and Billowes which beat up and down in it Thirdly This Metaphor fetcht forth the continuedness of afflâ—ction Deep calleth upon deep or calleth for deep That is one Wave beateth up and beateth on another * Undam undaque pellit or unda sequax as Virgil saith through the Tempests which God raiseth Afflictions unfathomable innumerable and very durable fall sometimes upon the People of God The next thing this Text sheweth to us is the greatness and invincibleness of faith which is set forth unto us by the Person faith taketh hold on in distress and that is God Faith leans on no Creature high nor low for in great distress What can the greatest Man do but God Yet the Lord shall c. Secondly The potency and invincibleness of faith is shewed unto us by that attribute in God on which faith fastens and that is his Soveraignty which commands all other wheels to go The Lord will command his loving kindness c. Thirdly Faith in the potency and invincibleness of it is shewed us by its excellent issues and effect which it doth produce which are two Prayer and Praise and in every dark state And in the Night his Song shall be with me and my Prayer to the God of my life in which is involved peace and joy and all good Doct. The Doctrin which I observe from these words is this That God sometimes maketh all his Waves and Billowes to go over Men yea good Men. The Psalmist thus complaineth not once in my Text but in Psal 69.1 2. Save me O God for the Waters are come into my Soul I sink in deep Mire where there is no standing I am come into deep Waters where the Floods overflow me I am weary of my crying my throat is dried mine eyes fail whilst I wait for my God David was a Man after God's own heart and yet saith he The waters are come into my Soul and I am come into deep Waters which overflow me and I cry to God and he lets me cry till my throat be dryed and can obtain no answer Elsewhere he speaks of himself and others Thâ—u sellest thy People for naught and dost not increase thy wealth by their price alluding to Slaves thou makest us a reproach to our Neighbours a scorn and derision to them that are round about us my confusion is still before me and the shame of my face hath covered me Psal 44 12 13 14. There is a great distance between the Planets they cannot dart one to another saith Seneca But it is not so with afflictions these will dart and reach one to another when pain is on the body it will reach unto the Soul All afflictions for kind and qualities and all for degree and quantity doth God sometimes bring upon Man First All afflictions for kind and quality that is spiritual and temporal Spiritual afflictions GOD brings upon Men yea upon the best Men. The loss of Ordinances When I remember these things I pour out my Soul for I had gone with the Multitude to the House of God Psal 42.4 As the loss of Ordinances So 2. The loss of God in Ordinances Why are thou cast down O my Soul c. O my God my Soul is cast down within me therefore will I remember thee from the Land of Jordan So Job complaineth of the loss of God The Arrows of the Lord are within me and the poison of them drink up my Spirit Job 6. And what a Man was he for integrity I acknowledge my sin and yet mine iniquity is ever before me Psal 51.3 Mine iniquities are gone over my head they are a heavy buâ—den too heavy for me to bear my wounds stink and are corrupt through my own foolishness Psal 38.4 5. A storm cannot raise it self above the Moon much less as far as the Stars saith the Philosopher and yet spiritual storms raise themselves in the Soul above all Sun Moon and Stars above all the graces gifts and endowments the Soul hath and eclipse and darken all My heart is sore pained within me and the terrors of death are fallen upon me fearfulness and trembling are come upon me and horrour hath overwhelmed me Psal 55.4 So Haman whilst I suffer thy terrors I am distracted And then God is gone indeed and Sun Moon and Stars overwhelmed Secondly Temporal afflictions doth God bring upon Men yea upon the best of Men. How our Saviour was afflicted in Spirit we read his Soul was heavy to death how he cried out and roared because of God hideing himself and as to all outward miseries and injuries what was not inflicted on him that Man or Devil yea or the Justice of God could inflict His visage was marred more than any Man's He had no House nor home He was in the Wilderness worried by Devils and wild Beasts He had no Bread no Bed no Friends forsaken of all even of all his Disciples So Haman how he complaineth of Bodily afflictions I am afflicted and ready to die from my Youth Psal 88.14 He had not a well day in all his life as we say and yet lived in an ill time to be sick namely when our Fathers were in their conflicts in Egypt under Pharaoh And yet mark what he saith then Thou hast laid me in the lowest Pit in darkness in the deep thy wrath lieth hard upon me Ps 88.7 and thou hast afflicted me with all thy Waves Sela. As if he had said that it should be done thus to and poor Creatures such a season as this when under the tiranny of a Foreign Enemy let it be wonder'd at by all the Creation Angels and Men. So Hezekiah how afflicted outwardly with a great Army of merciless Men insulting and besieging him and no sooner that over but sick unto death of the Plague and other infirmities as you may read by his complaints Mine Age is departed like a Shepheards Tent it is removed I have cut off like a Weaver my life he will cut me off with pining sickness which is many thousand deaths from Day even to Night he will make an end of me I reckoned that as a Lion so he will break all my bones Isa 38.12 Comets appear in the calmest Ayr and yet are very prodigious things So corporal calamities break out upon Men when in the greatest calm of ease and content When David said his Mountain was strong and that he should never be removed by and by you hear him cry out I am troubled I am bowed down greatly I go mourning all the Day long for my loins are filâ—d with a loathsome disease and there is no soundness in my flesh I am feeble and sore broken I
well in fair weather as in fowl saith Seneca but so doth not the Soul Thou hast made a Hedge about Job Doth he serve thee for naught No thou dost give him much and so hire him to serve thee do but take away as thou hast given to him and he will curse thee to thy face so saith God all he hath is in thine hands and then again saith touch his Bone and his Flesh and he will curse thee c. Take away Estate and take away health health and wealth and then questionless he will forsake such a hard Master and yet Satan was deceived Job held his integrity and now Job goes for current Coin in the Lords account Hast thou considered my Servant Job that he is a just Man and upright c. Though thou hast moved me against him without cause such an instance is David Thou didst thrust sore at me that is Satan because he saith that he thrust sore at him that he might fall but the Lord helped me Psal 118.13 God afflicts sore sometimes and then the Devil thrusts sore to shipwrack Conscience some way or other and thus doth God try Men sometimes to know all that is in their heart There is a Nursery at a great Dukes seat abroad which is called Schola illustris Great afflictions are the great God's Schola illustris that in and by which he makes the integrity of Men appear that is all the graces of Men in their true glory According to that 1 Pet. 1.7 That the trial of your faith being much more precious than that of Gold that perisheth may be found unto praise and honour at the appearing of Jesus Christ Barbils taken among Rocks are brave Fish and have their right colour Thirdly God brings all afflictions on Men yea on good Men to humble and to mortify Our Fathers were worried with all afflictions in the Wilderness forty Years together as to prove them so to humble them to pull down pride and stubborness and to make them long much for Canaan the Land of Rest And Job was kept at such a distance in all his conflicts as to try him so to humble him and abase him for his heart was too high What good Man's heart is not The Sacrifices of God are a broken and a contrite spirit such sacrifices in Religion God likes well Psal 51.17 He doth not despise low humble bleeding sinners that is he doth not worry and sleight to see them because they are as Wheat ground small enough to be Bread fit for their Masters Table David when his bones were all broken that is soul and body much afflicted then he begins to talk of a broken spirit when our conditions are high our spirits are so too and to bring the one low the Lord is forst to bring the other low too Paul that was a high confident Man God was fain from Heaven to fell him to the Earth and afterward to keep him low and humble was fain to let loose corruptions of nature and buffitings of Satan that by these thornes in his sides he might prick out and let out all the swelling windy conceits of himself and of his own holiness and goodness and usefulness which fluttered in his heart Mephibosheth being a Criple how humbly he speaks And he bowed himself and said What is thy Servant that thou shouldst look upon such a dead Dog as I am 2 Sam. 9.8 So when God Criples us in all things wherein we may be of use to him estate health inward and outward and yet keeps on a secret support and kindness though not sensible Oh how humble it makes the Man What a dead Dog am I that the Lord should regard me to do the least favour for me the ground is too good to bear me Naturali praevalet accidentale Sometimes accidental things prevail against natural accidental rods and punishments prevail against Natural Corruptions and Sins Secondly As God doth bring all afflictions to mortify pride so to mortify other sins to which our natures are too too prone to pluck up all sin by the roots well especially hypocrisie with which we do best play with in the matter of humiliation and mortification and renewing faith and repentance till the Lord swinge us indeed with all his Rods and long David though a good Man was beaten till he roared and made to roar all the Day long and Night and Day was God's hand heavy on him and his moisture turned into the drought of Summer to make him acknowledg and confess some special sin which lay hid and was kept close till a Fire was kindled in his bones then he confessed and spit out the sweet morsel which he tumbled in his mouth so long Psal 32.5 In some bad matters we are very bad and naught and ready to make excuses and defences and to hide our sin this way as Adam 't is but a little one and I do not use it it is but now and then when I meet with such bad company All afflictions and smart Rods are but few enough in these cases to make us speak out and do out as we should and to make such clearing our selves in these bad matters as becometh Penitents Sometimes of the year in Ethiopia when most hot their Silver waxeth Lead and no cover of any rich matter can endure saith the Historian And truly I may more fitly spiritualise it sometimes when the entisements of some sins most sutable to our nature are strong and hot through Satan's Fire-Darts all our silver becomes lead 1 All our graces Faith and love and courage fails and become corrupted and bribed by the sin which so easily besets and then is God enraged and layeth about him as a jealous God and taken up all his Rods and layeth them on as with all his might and all little enough to kill pleasing sin and beloved sin at the Root to dis-heart it well He makes a great Fire to purify well and make the scum come all out as it should When the Children of Ammon saw that they stank before David then they sent to him the Syrians 2 Sam. 10.6 So till a Sinner by the many punishments of God seeth that he stinks in the Nostrils of God he doth not raise forces against his sin as he should 1 He doth not set hmself to repent of it and clear and cleanse his afflictions throughly of it as he should by faith in the death of Christ They say of the Spaw Waters broad that they are not so pleasant as wholesome so I may say of afflictions that they are not so pleasant as wholesome Inutile per inutile perimitur Thirdly As God brings afflictions upon Men yea upon good Men to mortify sin well so to mortify them well to all the natural good things of this World and so to make them indeed dead with Christ to all here As the Nurse puts bitter things on her breasts to take off the Child from the sweet milk and put his mouth out of relish and
affections to his People Now God dispenseth riches anon poverty but both with the same spirit of love Now he dispenseth peace by his spirit to the soul and anon terror and upbrading and both by the same spirit of Fatherly affection So that storms arise from a discord in the matter of God's dispensations and not from a change in Gods love for God is immutable and changeth not and whom he loveth he loveth to the end Learn from hence that the way to Heaven is narrow such throngs of Miseries are on one side afflicting and such throngs of Devils on the other side tormenting and then within such throngs of lusts and corruptions on one side and such throngs of Gods frowns and rebukes on the other hand so that the way for the poor soul to go to Heaven between all these is very narrow The Sea is broad enough and yet the winds and storms may be such as to make the passage to such a Port narrow enough and hard to hit and make The wayes to Heaven are very spacious and in themselves very pleasant but there arise so many storms within and without these these make them narrow and hard to hit and make and walk in as we should I am counted with them that go down into the Pit I am as a Man that hath no strength free among the dead like the sâ—â—ne that lie in the Grave whom thou rememberest no more as they that are cut off from thine hand Psal 88.4 5. They had almost consumed me upon Earth but I forgat not thy Precepts Psal 119.87 The wayes of God are broad and large and good but there are so many slaying consuming evils on both sides these these make them narrow and hard to hit and to walk well in One mischief almost consumes us and then get ofâ— that a little and presently another evil worse takes hold of us and this quite breaks us Before we can swallow our spitle waves beat so thick that we know not which way to steer The superior bodies which are fixed are pure and clear and never change their complexion not course If it were thus with our graces then though storms and troubles did arise we should see and make our way well enough we should make the favour of God Christ and Heaven at Mid-night But our graces change when our conditions change and when our bodies are weak our faith is weak when our outward condition is low our graces are all low too and this maketh the way of Religion hard and difficult and narrow Learn from hence that little trials should not be made much of At every small thing that befalls us we do so take on when others have all the waves of God gone over them and we have skarce one We have a few trials and a many of mercies to support us and yet what out-cries and others have all miseries and skarce one mercy to support them and yet these it may be make less noise That which Physicians call inveterate head-ach is made by every light occasion and then continueth long and hardly stayed and the Person loves to fit in the dark is here applicable Some their miseries are inveterate and yet made and woven with every trivial thing and then there is no quieting as if they had more afflictions on them than all the Town besides and then sit in the dark mope here and there and unfit themselves and undress themselves to all business to go in a hole when twenty and twenty undergo more affliction in one Moneth than they in many Years yet quiet and complain little to Men. My soul is continually in my hand yet do I not forget thy Law Psal 119.109 Some there is continually but a step between them and some mortal malady and yet how patient how believing how heavenly able to comfort others and others are more afraid than hurt as we say and fancy their case for misery more than really it is and yet how disconsolate how unbelieving how froward how troubling wife husband all the house Some their cases are as sad as sad can be like those which have a sentence of Death at the Bar that sit like sentenced Men on the Lader waiting when the Execut oner will do his office and this I doubt is the case of many and some not only as to all their welfare in this World but as to all their welfare in the World to come And that we should make ado about this and that when the life and soul and eternal welfare of such and such hangs thus in doubt before them Learn that they have much cause to bless God who find any calmes and lueida intervalla considering what continual stormes and calamities attend our condition here 'T is incredible that a storm should mount as high as Mid-Heaven and whirl it self among the Spheres which move so peaceably and regularly and yet it is most incredible if every one of us do not find storms assault us in our highest graces and enjoyments What Clouds gather still after the Rain in this Climate What fenny boggy places our spirits are yielding matter of storms continually and therefore what cause have we to bâ—ess God if we have any tranquility or health or liberty or soul-peace in this World We value the favours of God as we do a Companion in the way no longer than he rideth our way we value the favours of God as â—e do the paring of our naâ—ls they have served our use and so we throw them away Linnen doth not receive a skarlet die there is not a deep and fit foundation for such a noble colour So it is with many Souls they are as thin Linnen not deep and substantial enough to receive a right impression of Gods favours For pains in the Head you must use great frictions and rubbings of the inferior parts of the Body to draw down And truly discontent and unthankfulness is an evil in the head and heart too a slightness and misunderstanding of the great mercies of God and to cure it things must be rubbed much upon the conscience that lower Court of judging and condemning things amiss for we are less than the least of all Gods favours Learn that we have much cause to be very Heavenly Floods so much overflow all here and all things are so oft sloted in this World that it is necessary our Souls be much upon the Wing and much aloft in that upper World Procul negotiis should be the Saints Motto Far from sin nay far from the troublesome business and matters of this World and much else where to wit in Heaven where we say our Treasure is How precious are thy thoughts unto me how great is the sum of them when I awake I am still with thee Psal â—9 18 When all Gods waves over flowed the old wicked World the Dove flees to the Ark so should the great and continued troubles of this world make us retreat much to Christ and to that good and