means though the Spirit alway is the great wooer and worker in this kind I say the Spirit by their word doth work to the revealing of a poor creature breaking that enmity that was in the heart to Jesus Christ So the Apostle I have espoused you to one Husband so we read it which Beza disalloweth not but he readeth optavi Erasmus adjunxi the word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I have joyned them to the Lord saith he Eras velâ—t ea quae glutine aut ferrumine comittuntur but yet me thinks saith Beza the the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that I might present you as a pure virgin to one Husband c. confutes is speaking afterward of a nearer joyning to Christ then now therefore he readeth it I have fitted you for the Lord wherein 1. Is a reconciling of the persons to Jesus Christ We beseech you saith the Apostle be ye reconciled to God In Christs stead we do it as if he did beseech you himself we pray you be reconciled and O that we could do this brethren but with such bowels as the Lord Jesus or as this Apostle did We are soon answered and take a denyal of you for you practice a denyal and we are too easie to take it O I beseech you saith the Apostle be you reconciled Alas poor sinners you are enemies to Christ and how will an enemy be marryed to an enemy while such you think you are not enemies and you are not so indeed in word and profession but in your deeds you are enemies You do nothing but wound and tear his name and are you not then enemies you hate the strictness of his ways and his people that walk in them and are you not enemies you are in love with your sins which were the very speare at his heart the knife that butchered him and are not enemies Ah! how many such here this day Now our work is to intreat you first to be reconciled as for his part he is ready to forgive and forget all and to look upon you as if you had never had offended him if you had but hearts given you towards him as his is towards you 2. Not onely but then there is the espousing brethren and that is when there is a mutual promise past between the Lord Jesus and the soul he will be a Husband to thee and marry thee to himself and thou wilt be faithful to him wilt never follow other lovers any more Thou wilt be his and his alone if he be pleased to be thine Now the Gospel which we preach is the word of this faith It is indeed the spirit brethren which is received by the hearing of faith by the word of faith as the Apostle spake that doth perswade a soul to this to close with him to take him upon his own terms He will be his virgin now for ever 3. There is yet further an adorning her when so espoused and so fitting her for him to be presented him a pure virgin That I might present you not only chaste but all manner of purity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and this is nothing else brethren but the integrity and uprightness of the soul the abounding of the soul with all the graces of the spirit wherein there is a growth by degrees And this is the work of the servants of Jesus Christ a part of their fitting of them for him To labour to carry on his work so in his peoples hearts that they may be adorned and meet for such a Bride-groom There are but two things more to be hinted before I come to the Application of this And the next is The manner of this espousing or betrothing but before that we must note That as there was a betrothing of virgins some time before the compleating of the marriage which custom is commendable you know Joseph had Mary espoused to him before he took her to his family as compleatly and fully So among the Heathens also placuit despondi nuptiis hic dictus est dies saith the Comic Terent. only to the faith of the marriage Now they were counted by the people of God and by the Law man and wife Husband and wife * It was death for them to violate that betrothing as well as if they had been never so compleatly and solemnly marryed whereby it appears God would have them look upon it as a perfect marriage though the consummation of it were not until afterward the taking of her home and solemnly engaging de presenti as they say So here the consummation of this marriage is deferred a while as you have it in the very Text at last at midnight the cry was Behold the Bridegroom cometh and they that were ready went in with him to the marriage that is to say into heaven Then when Isaac took Rebecca and brought her into his Mothers Tent and became one with her more neerly she became his wife indeed so hereafter when he takes us into his fathers house brethren when he takes us into Heaven there is the marriage consummated indeed But for the manner of his espousals First remember this in all He doth it freely For alas Brethren what can the Lord Jesus now if he come into the Congregation this day see in any of us that he would take for his spouse what can he see in us there is nothing desireable nor lovely in us we are like poor Infants cast out in our blood not washed nor salted but stinking loathsom the navel not cut nor bound up cast out to the loathing of our person Ah Brethren while poor sinners are in their sins they smell not the loathsomness of their souls they have stinking nostrils to which the savour of sin is suitable and therefore they smell it not we are as persons that have been long in a filthy Jakes or Dungeon and by continuance of it we feel it not it is so habitual or indeed connatural to us but now bring a man out of this place a little while and put him into it again O then how loathsom it is to him yea bring him to the door of it O it is ready to sink him so it is in this case you see it not poor creatures O that such of us as the Lord hath made sin loathsom to could tell how to pitty you but sure you will finde it so if ever the Lord Jesus do espouse you he will first let you know what you are to whom he doth this Alas what can he see in us brethren or hath he seen in any of us that he stands in this relation to for birth you have nothing but baseness The Devil is our Father and his works we will do I mean as to corruption that is within us whence is it but from Satan For Beauty there is none but all deformed wounds and bruises and putrified sores full of corruption that stink and are loathsom and what beauty can there be in such a
Silver tryed and purified seven times that is to say his Promise therefore he concludeth That the Lord will keep them he will preserve them for ever and so pretious so confirmed by miracles that all other truth scarce deserveth the name of truth in comparison of it either it is not so pure but hath some dross or else not so pretious O they are pretious Promises indeed as the soul knoweth right-well when he cometh to stand in need of a Promise and the sweetness of it he sucks out and it letteth down the sweetness of it upon the soul but take a parallel Scripture to shew that Gospel is called the truth The Apostle speaks plainly For the hope which is laid up for you in heaven whereof you heard before in the word of the truth of the Gospel and again to the Ephesians In whom also ye trusted after that ye heard the word of truth the Gospel of your salvation in whom also after ye believed ye were sealed with the holy Spirit of Promise So that this is the truth then the knowledge whereof shall make us free where the Spirit of Christ is there is liberty that is clear as you heard before Now how is the Spirit given but by the Gospel Received ye the Spirit by the works of the Law or by the hearing of Faith which is that hearing of Faith by the Word of Truth the foregoing Verse even that which held forth a crucified Christ to them hearing of Faith not the rumour of Faith but hearing is such an hearing as whereby a man believeth and Faith by a Metonymie is put for the Word of Faith as the Gospel is called sometimes because Faith thereby is begotten now by this the Spirit is received and therefore liberty cometh and therefore the Gospel is called the ministration of the Spirit in that place of the Apostle because therewith the Spirit is given and ministred to poor creatures whereas the Law works Bondage and Wrath Therefore Jerusalem is free which is above that is to say the Church builded upon the Covenant of Grace is free is the Mother of us all but enough of this The Gospel is the outward instrumental cause Fifthly the inward instrumental cause or Con. as some will have it which I shall not now dispute that is faith whereby we close with this Covenant it is the Word of Faith and hearing of Faith that is to say of the Gospel so as to work Faith whereby the Spirit is given which brings liberty to the soul Alas many hear the Gospel of liberty which we preach and few do receive it few believe it for it appeareth by woful experience we are yet in bondage we have never gone forth to this day many of us though we have had as much preaching of the Gospel as any other Jerusalem that now is as the Apostle cals it was in bondage then though they had the Gospel preached among them a great while they believed not except the Spirit therein be conveyed the Gospel is but a dead letter as well as the Law and a deadly letter also and so much for the causes of this liberty or freedom which cometh by Jesus Christ The third thing under this head is the parts of this liberty or freedom which we shall consider two ways First Extensively in their latitudeâ— And secondly Intensively in the degrees of each of these parts in its latitude But that we may the better understand it we must know that liberty is a relative and respecteth some bondage some imprisoning or shutting up from which this liberty is a deliverance ye shall go forth and therefore to set off the lustre of this glorious liberty it may not be amiss to run a parallel between them That there is such a bondage under which every poor creature without Christ is held we shall at present presuppose though afterward haply I shall come to prove it I would not here too far digress before we come to speak of the parts of the bondage to which the parts of liberty will be opposite and correspondent I shall say in a few words something to the Author of this Bondage and Tenure of it and but a word or two For the Author of this bondage under which poor creatures are without Christ altogether and in part also many times when they are under Christ and under Grace First Some part of it is to be ascribed to the Lord so far forth as it is meerly vindictive or an inflicting of a just penalty upon Sinners for sin so far we may ascribe it to God as will more plainly appear in the following Considerations The Law which genders to Bondage it is his Law and holy and just and good though it gender to Bondage nor will it follow because we are delivered form it therefore it was an evil in it self but only per accidens by reason of our corruption and so the Spirit of Bondage which in some is vindictive when he binds and hampers a Sinner with the cords of his sin haply never intending that he shall see through those terrors to his comfort this is from him and justly or else if it be in order to a settlement to a peace to an Adoption a Sonship through Christ as preparative to the receiving of Christ this is from him and so several other parts of it are from him under this Consideration Secondly But so far forth as any part of it is sinful there it is from Satan and from our own evil hearts for darkness cannot come from the light nor can any thing unclean come from that which is altogether pure no more then a clean thing can proceed from an unclean as the bondage under sin which more at large afterward we shall discuss Secondly For the tenure for being in bondage we are in bondage to some person properly to some thing improperly and by a kind of Prosopopeia we are said to be in such a bondage now there is some Tenure as I may say wherein they do hold us in bondage there are three or four tenures if I may so call them whereby we are thus held under Bondage until Jesus Christ come to set us free First A Sale Secondly By Birth Thirdly By Captivity or Conquest Fourthly By Tyranny and resignation of themselves up to such a vassallage but a word or two to each of them First then There is a Bondage by Captivity when People are taken Captives this is so common there is none can be ignorant of it What are the Turks Gally-slaves but the prey of their piracies all is fish that cometh to the net so it is in this case This is one Part of the Tenure we are taken captive by Satan even at his pleasure Of whom a man is overcome of the same is he brought in bondage this is the military Law the Prisoners were ever the Conquerours slaves we have seen it but too evidently with our own eyes we have
of so great weight 7. But negligent in preparation to holy duties publike and private 8. How empty and vain in discourses and unprofitable 9. How distempered in hearing publikely and in conferences with the Church 10. Vile thoughts even in the time of reading and meditation which are deep hypocrisie 11. Yet back-slidden even since the last Lords Supper 12. Yet little pure love to the Saints as Saints 13. Yet not a sensible heart of the dishonour of Christ in these times 14. Yet not a tender nor believing heart in holding out the word of reconciliation 20. In preparation for the Supper-Ordinance he would bring himsels unto the Test and to say the truth was very clear in the discovering and making out of his own condition being well acquainted with the way of Gods dealing with the soul and with the way of the souls closing with Christ Instance April 3. 1653. upon search I find 1. My self an undone creature 2. That the Lord Jesus sufficiently satisfied as Mediator the Law for sin 3. That he is freely offered in the Gospel 4. So far as I know my own heart I do through mercy heartily consent that he only shall be my Saviour not my works or duties which I do only in obedience to him 5. If I know my heart I would be ruled by his word Spirit Behold in a few words the summe and substance of the Gospel 21. The Lord blessed his enquiries with gracious returns when he set himself seriously to clear up his interest in him Instance October 30. 1652. As I was questioning and searching whether I were a child of God or no me thought this was suddenly spoken in me or to me If I be not thy Father what am I then to thee Am I an enemy to thee which did much affect and melt my heart through much mercy In preparation for the Lords Supper Jan. 1. 1652. as I was upon the same Question within my self whether I was a child of God yea or no me thought this was suggested within me If I be not thy â—ather why dost thou follow me so hard and breath after me which also did much affect my heart at that time 22. He got ground on his corruptions and his grave-cloaths fell off apace while he was yet alive Several daies I find good recorded and no evil Instance Good Evil. In morning read a long Hebrew Chapter in closet-duty not altogether without his presence studied for my Sermons and the afternoon spent much what in preparation of my self for the Lords Supper and not altogether without his presence for blessed be his name he humbled me and melted me in the â—ight of my own vileness  About 7. weeks before his translation returning from London he found his Family in a languishing condition by reason of a feavourish distemper which had crept in among them It being the Lords wont to send some forerunning waves to dash against and wet us before he send that mountainous one with which he will overwhelm us His youngest child save one departs this life on Friday night being the 11. of Nov. 1654. How often are the little Lambs taken from the sides of their dams from whom they received life and carried to the place where they met with their deaths An hopeful branch must be lopt off before the Root it self dry up and wither Saturday morning that Chapter came to be read in course which contains Davids Fasting and mourning for his child whilst it lived c. Comparing his own condition with that of David he said Davids mourning went before but mine must follow after The duties of the Family being over he retires again into his study keeps the day as a Fast and being awakened by this affliction is put upon serious self-reflexions and searching endeavours to find out the cause of this smart-stroke of Gods hand an account whereof taken out of his Diary you have as follows God taking away my little babe Job November 11. 1654. Searching my waies c. 1. Not returning according to his multiplyed mercies to us not thankful enough the heart not endeared to him 2. More lax in watching over my thoughts 3. A foolish stupidity and security before this blow from the the Lord far from waiting for changes Jonah-like fast asleep 4. An unnatural heart to him and the rest insensible of his pains 5. Grown very slight in the Lords service though wofully distracted and dead in every duty almost yet not sensible of it nor humbled under it had lost of that spiritualness and heavenly-mindedness once I had through grace 6. Partial affection to the sons more then to the daughters therefore God took this away and smote the other His wife would have had the Funerals deferr'd till Munday but he would not give way saying I have other work to do tomorrow At even the people being come together he accompanied the Corps unto the grave into which he was observed to look very wishly as if he had been curiosly looking for a resting place for himself shortly to lye down in and had thus bespoken his dead child I shall shortly come to thee but thou shalt not return to me Coming home he was very raised and chearful and comforted his wife with this saying among many others Come love he has but got the start of us It being my work to track him and tread upon the print of his heels I must follow him even through the valley of the shadow of death which was not so frightful to him in its approach as to me uncomfortable in its description The time of his departure is at hand and no wonder He was ripe betimes and therefore gathered and taken into Gods Granary He had done his work and must therefore go to receive his wages and this I may be bold to say that he did God more service in a little time then many others whose line of life was twice as long as his He cannot be far off from his center because of the swiftness of his motion He was alwaies much upon the wing but towards his latter end he was wont to soar very high and took many a turn in Paradise every day and would be often hovering about the Casements of the Star-chamber which having delightfully peept and pryed into he came down again though not without much regret and grief yet solacing himself with this consideration that he should shortly meet the Lord in the air and then be ever with the Lord. During the time of his pilgrimage and abode in the Lords Vineyard he served his God and his Generation with all his might He ran faster then others and was therefore sooner out of breath He screwed up the peggs so high that the strings of his several faculties crack and can hold out no longer He did with so much vehemency and contention of spirit continually stir up himself to take hold on God and followed so hard after him that he sunk under the burden of his own
endeavours His late journey to London heated his blood and disposed his already-wasting body to a dangerous distemper which discovered it self on the Lords day in his forenoons Sermon which after his return from the Congregation he laboured to conceal from his wife by endeavouring to eat though it were much against his stomach she perceiving some alteration in his countenance and carriage said You are not well pray preach not again to whom he replyed away away hinder me not Whereupon he retired to his study and adventured to preach again in the afternoon though with some difficulty and apparent symptoms of sickness in his very visage It was upon the spirits of some that this was the last time they should ever hear him One seeing and observing him in his return said Thou art almost in heaven I shall never see thee more The Text which he preached on that day is considerable Psal 4. 6. There be many that say Who will shew us any good Lord lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us The former part viz. the enquiry Who will shew us any good he finished in the fore-noon and urged several arguments why men ought to sit loose from all things that are here below His expressions argued in him affections disingaged from matters dreggy and terrene One foot is off the earth already the other will be so too shortly He takes his flight from earth to heaven and in the afternoon made entrance on the latter part of the verse Lord lift thou up c. a suitable subject for him to speak to who was now about to enter into the gloomy horrours of the grave Those bright refulgent beams of heavenly light are never more seasonable then when we are upon the borders of the Land of darkness Ten glorious fruits and effects of the lifting up of the light of Gods countenance he held forth the heads of which because of the spirituality of the matter and being the words of a dying man and experienced Christian you will find in the Margin Judicious Christâ—ans plainly perceived him at that time to be wonderfully raised and his spreading sailes to be sweetly swelled with the powerful breathings of the Spirit for he spake more like one neer the Throne and in the company of Angels then one in a Pulpit and surrounded with mortalls At even the people according to their accustomed manner came crouding and thronging to Repetition His wife in vain perswaded him to dismiss the Assembly in repeating his Sermons Singing and Prayer he spent about two hours time At Supper he did eat a little with his wife and that chearfully yet complained of an unusual heaviness in his head and soreness in his eys when endeavouâ—ing to lift them up and took little rest the ensuing night The next morning seeing that he must be sick indeed he blessed the Lord that he found him in his work The Physitian being sent for and consulted with said he had got cold and was feavorish the second night is passed over with as little rest as the first A day of Thanksgiving in private for his own return from London and his wives late safe delivery was designed to be celebrated about this time the consideration of which occasioned some sadness whereupon to his wife he said This is sad love this looks as if the Lord would not accept of an Offering of praise from our hands And then he called for the Notes of a Thanksgiving Sermon preached long before by Doctor Jones on that passage of Hezekiah Who rendred not unto the Lord according to the benefit The third day as a choice Christian friend who came to visit him was discoursing with his wife he fell afleep and two or three hours after awaking he called for his wife who coming to him and kneeling down upon the beds side he fixed his eys on her and said dost thou know that place I will give them the Valley of Achor for a door of hope Who said yes He further asked her if she kâ—ew the meaning of it who expressing her apprehensions he said yea there it is and then a little nodding his head and pointing with his finger at her said Remâ—mber this Our valley of trouble shall be our door of hope About the fifth day in letting blood he fainted and with a low voyce said What means this it was not thus with me at Sir Roberts Kings To his wife looking upon him he said Now Love it is a weaning time He was more careful of Gods Service then of his own attendance causing the servants to leave him that so their duty to God in ways of worship might not be neglected The seventh day being the Sabbath he inquired who carried on the work and seemed to affect retirement and secret converse with God upon his own day Most part of the second week was passed over in a silent submission and quiet waiting on the Lord. The thirteenth day in the morning being Saturday his pains were very violent for an hour and half and extorted from him that doleful complaint Lord how long Ah my bowels my bowels I have grieved bowels this speaks much I have wanted bowels I have not been so pittiful towards others The Doctor being sent for and staying longer then was expected he said Lord give us help from trouble for vain is the help of man At night he was much refreshed chearful all night and prone to discourse and praised without any complaining and withall said I would have given the whole world for so much ease in the morning The Lords day in the morning the Doctor coming to him and looking on him wept to whom Master Murcot said How is it with me Doctor You may do well Brother I hope if you can get any sleep Master Murcot Tell me true how is my Pulse Doctor I confess it is but bad but you may do well if you can sleep which he indeavoured a while though in vain by closing his eys To his wife looking sadly on him he said Love canst thou pray for â—leep for me what saist thou to which her swelling grief permitted her not to return answer The rumouâ— of his weak condition being spread abroad a Doctor was sent from my Lord Deputy to see if there were any hope of life who speaking to him he said Doctor I am spent with sweating To his Sister he said and that without any amazement and peâ—turbation of spirit Sister I must now tell you I am not for this world and then lifting up himself he said Lord remember me how I have walked before thee in sincerity with all my might He wished the Sabbath were over that so he might do something about his Will though little were to be done His wife seeing hearing these passages said to him Now I see that you know that you must leave us He answered yes Love whereat she weeping he exhorted her to a Resignation to which she answered The Lord hath
to vvalk if a man be taken up vvith other things in his mind and it be intent upon them how unevenly doth he vvalk he is sometimes upon this side and then upon that side of the vvay up and down and many times loseth his way and heedeth it not but now if a man make his Journey his business he is intent upon it and looks about him at every turn and every turning lest he should go vvrong so to vvalk exactly then doth imply a vvatchfull eye a trembling heart fearing at every turning lest he should miss hâ—s vvay so David I said I would take heed to my ways lest I should go wrong so then to vvalk exactly is to lay our strength our might our vvisdom and all to it to keep our vvay so the word is used of Apollos he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being fervent in spirit diligently he taught the things of the Lord there it noteh not so much the exactness accurateness of his skill but of his diligence and industry for he knew only the Baptism of Iohn that is to say the Doctrine of Iohn and his Administration and so Herod is said to inquire Go and search diligently for the young child c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 search exactly diligently pry into every corner turn every stone use all means search from bottom to top to find him so then to vvalk exactly is to make it a mans vvork business to lay out his industry in this vvork if he can but keep in the vvay of Jesus Christ the vvay to heaven it is enough Now for the second thing to make it good that it is a duty so strictly charged upon the Saints me thinketh this Scripture it self is a full testimony there needeth no further proof but yet a word or two more you find in that of the Hebrews the Apostles exhortation make straite paths to your feet straite steps or make straite paths with your feet which may appear to others that are to follow you as you follow Christ tread with a straite foot and by a straite rule and in that of the Proverbs Ponder the path of thy feet and let all thy ways be established weigh your steps before you take them weigh them every grain and scruple in the ballance of the Sanctuary walk you Suspenso pede Look before you leap look and look again this is the way to have your goings established and here in the Text see how it is charged upon them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 see to it it is a word of strict charge as we use to say to men Well see you do such a thing see you fail not then so saith the Apostle see to it that you walk circumspectly it is not an indifferent thing nor of small moment but of great concernment see to it look to your selves and then that particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 increaseth the charge also See how ye walk exactly or how exactly you walk it is not the reflect act that is here commanded that they should view their ways and see how exactly they did walk this is not directly here commanded and immediatly though more remotely as it conduceth to this exact walking it may be here commanded but that particle doth intend the charge and heighten it but so much for the proof The third thing is why this duty is thus charged upon the Saints to walk so exactly circumspectly First because they are children of the light and therefore should walk as children of the light they should walk exactly without rowling out of the way without stumbling in the way because they have light they that are in the darkness and know not whither they go no marvell if at any time they stumble into the way of God yet they as easily stumble out again it is but suitable to them not to keep their way but now ye are in the light and therefore see that you walk accurately you have a light to your paths and a lanthorn to your steps therefore order your steps aright make them straite therefore saith Erasmus he well saith videte because nothing is seen in the dark but Beza thinketh this is more subtilly then need Secondly Because their steps are more eyed and taken notice of then other mens both by God himself and by other men first the Lord himself his eye runs to and fro beholding the evil and the good but specially in his own people he takes notice of them how they carry it and he takes notice of the most inward spirituall part of their hearts of the frame of their hearts and therefore let them look to it walk circumspectly in regard of him Secondly In regard of men 1. There are many out of the malignancy of their hearts do seek some advantage against the people of God they watch for your halting as the Prophet speaks they would have somewhat to accuse the brethren with to bespatter Religion with and therefore like their father the Devil if they cannot be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 accusers they will be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 false accusers But oh how glad is Satan and what sport is it to sinners to trap the people of God to take them halting and walking with an uneven foot though it is sport to none but devils and devilish sinners take that by the way they were enemies of the Lord that did blaspheme though David had given them cause report say they and we will report it concerning Ieremy some evil or other against him how much more if any thing fall from them which is justly blame worthy O a Candle upon an hill cannot be hid a spot upon white is easily seeâ— Secondly in respect of men who are scandalized by their uneven walking and those either good or bad men 1. Some of the Saints they are scandalized that is to say there is a stumbling block laid in their way whereat they stumble either thereby they are incouraged and imboldened to follow their steps though they sin against the Lord and so they fall and this is sad though a child of God cannot sure be so wicked as to intend the falling of others or drawing others into sin but his example as Balam did who put a stumbling block wittingly and wickedly before Israel taught the King of Moab to intice Israel by their women and they would draw them to Idolatry whereupon great wrath came forth against them this is hardly to be found but in aâ—â— Balaam and better a Millstone were hanged about his neck that shall do any such thing and he sunk into the sea never to rise again or else the thing in its own nature is matter of offence and occasions them to sin as the strong brohers eating things offered to Idols in the presence of the weak hat made scruple of it yet thereby were imboldned to sin but if it draweth not to sin yet it may be a grief to the hearts of them that
neither of them that are strong men and women in Christ nor yet of such as haply natural incapacity is a great hindrance to But were we not many of us much wanting to our selves in reading meditating on the word of truth we might be much more apprehensive then we are we are in a strait indeed for some are so acute that we can scarce touch lightly enough upon things least they nauseate others are so dull we cannot dwell long enough upon them almost to make them understand something Well this is the first Argument Secondly Because men are exceeding slow to believe things O fools saith our Saviour and slow of heart to believe the things which the Scriptures c. Concerning the Messiah how he must be rejected and cut off and rise again the third day Might he not upbraid our Congregations brethren in the like manner how often have we heard the same things and it may be given assent to the truth of the same but yet are slow to believe And this Argument will stand good against the acutest hearers though they may out-run the speaker haply in apprehension they may be slow-paced enough in believing Now it is true it is not all our inculcating and pressing the same truths upon men that can work their hearts to believe until the arm of the Lord be revealed to them yet we know not when and how far he may reveal his arm It may be a little at one time and a little at another Agrippa hearing Paul once discourse of Jesus Christ was almost perswaded haply if he had had another opportunity to hear the like things again it might have proved a through work Felix trembled at the first Sermon upon Judgement to come if he had heard it the second time who can tell how far it might have wrought This the second Thirdly Alas Brethren our memories are such leaking vessels we are full of chinks hac illac difluxerimus and therefore as from thence the Apostle infers we should give the more diligent heed to the things which are spoken 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 least we run out So should we also inculcate the same truths again who is there that hath not woful experience of this other things evil and vile they have such impression upon our memories O how much ado is it to raze them out injuries are graven upon us even as with the pen of a Diamond vain words wicked speeches we have heard long since we cannot forget but a thing that is good O how much ado there is to remember it had not a riddle need often to be put into the water it will hold nothing else be not forgetful hearers of the word saith the Apostle but doers of the same how many of us are even high-way seed hearers The word is gone from us before we are out of these doors or the most part of it So the fowls of the Aire the evil spirits they steal away the word from us so that we had as much need to hear it again as when we came O saith Peter as long as I live I will put you in remembrance To do good and to communicate forget not saith the Apostle no Question they had been taught that lesson again and again and yet they were apt to forget and therefore the Apostle goeth over it again to them to put them in remembrance Fourthly It is requisite because our affections are so dull they had need to be often quickned therefore whet the word upon your children It is not one whet that will edge a dull knife but over and over with it again and again as many times in Scripture a repetition of a thing in prayer in preaching speaks the affections of him that delivereth it so it stirs the affections of the hearers Phil. 4. 4. saith the Apostle rejoyce in the Lord alway and again I say rejoyce is that a tautology or a vain repetition no sure the Apostle was not guilty in that kind but it was needful to stir the affection to the duty our hearts indeed are like so many dead Seas and it is not a little breath once upon us that will move but when the wind passeth often and strongly over us then it may affect us haply the word is therefore compared to the words of the wise which are like goads not the words of fools who are no orators sensless and know not what belongs to the Art of speaking rightly but the words of the wise are like goads sharp and they are to be often used we are like oxen in duty creatures that will often need to be pricked up therefore the metaphor is used therefore saith the Apostle I put you in remembrance of the things you knew before and were established in even to stir you up there is need of quickening the affections a man may deliver the same truth haply more stirringly one time then another and the spirit may breath in it one time more then in another and then the affections are stirrd indeed to purpose that is a fourth Gutta cavat lapidem non vi sed saepe cadendo Fifthly because of the unconstancy of our hearts if we be a little affected with a truth at one time how long doth such a frame continue upon us David was sensible how fleeting the frame of our hearts are And therefore though himself and his people were in as sweet a frame as any we read of almost when they offered with a perfect heart willingly and so willingly as that David rejoyced in it and blessed the Lord for it that they had hearts so to do this was a precious frame indeed yea David rejoyced at the willingness of others not envied at it saith he that the Lord would keep this frame for ever Keep this upon the imagination or figments of their hearts for ever Alas if he keep it not it is gone presently now upon Eagles wings soring by and by with our bellies cleaving to the earth Psal 119. 24. thy testimonies are my delight and 25. v. my belly cleaveth to the dust And therefore the words of the wise they are as goads and nails nails to take hold and fasten things together that they may abide and if they be driven to the head yet how quickly may it be loosened again is there not need of the same hammer to fasten it again therefore saith the Apostle Peter though you be established in the present truth already yet I Judge it meet to stir you up by putting you in remembrance Sixthly because we are so slow to do what we know which indeed is the main thing we do but build Castles in the Aire Bretheren if we hear and do not and yet who is clear in this point yea how often may we hear a practical truth prest upon us before we practise it yea when we are convinced to do it and resolved we will and yet with the Son in the Gospel
ever is required I will give if I must take flesh an infinite condescention I will do it as if a Prince should say if I must be cloathed with rags yea with clods yea with worms I will rather then I will go without such a poor worm to be my spouse If I must part with my dearest blood and extend it to the last drop I will Ask me any Dowry yea if I must give my self for them who am God and equal with thee as well as afterward man I will do it my kingdom for them my glory for them my blood for them O brethren the Lord Jesus is worth a hundred thousand worlds well he will buy us he hath done it at a dear rate Indeed David bought Michal at a dear rate by the death of the Philistims and afterward two hundred foreskins of the Philistins it pleased him well what is this brethren If David must have parted with his life for her have been so much debased as to have lived a poor despised contemptible life for her a hâ—wer of wood or drawer of water or ground at a Mill or to have been as Job continually a man of sorrows and upon the dunghil this had been somewhat but nothing to this of Jesus Christ Satan was there spouse bought at so low a rate as the Church of Christ was I have read of some that must not marry a woman until they had killed an enemy and other until they had killed or overcome their Corrivals and happily this might be hard But the Lord Jesus he must grapple with his Corrival the Law the former Husband as the Apostle cals it as it is the strength of sin and slay that and take away the Curse break the commanding power the streaming power of the Law before he could take us to be his And so he must grapple with principalities and powers and spoyl them and lead captivity captive scatter him in his temptations break him in his policies undermine him in his depths and methods over-power him in his malice he must destroy all these enemies Yea more then all this the wrath of his father that was against us and against which there was no standing he must interpose and screen us from it and O! How it scorched him though he quenched it As the Passeover was roasted in the fire so the Lord Jesus our Passeover was even roasted alive in the displeasure of his Father 3. Then he cometh a wooing for when all this is done brethren we are unwilling it may be to have him are well contented to continue with our former Husband to be yet under the Law and the commanding power of sin and see no such beauty in him as to desire him nor any such freedom and comfort in being one with him as to desire that Yea if we be convinced a little of this yet happily our wills or hearts are not towards him and therefore he is fain to wâ—o us when all is done himself came in the days of his flesh and what was his work before his suffering but to wooe poor creatures to accept of him How did he wooe the woman of Samaria If thou hadst known saith he the Gift of God thou wouldst have asked him insinuating there was more in him then she yet saw as appeared when he told her her sins what they had been How often would I have gathered thee Jerusalem Jerusalem saith he O I have been ready to spread my Skirts over you but you would not Sometimes intreating sometimes lamenting their condition sometimes displeased at the hardness of their hearts It is much for a King to come a wooing himself a great King They use to send as David to Abigail Abraham to Rebecca but here he cometh himself a long journey from Heaven to Earth and contented to take on him the form of a servant that we might not be dazled with his glory and no pains doth he refuse How did he go up and down on foot until he was weary Blessed Saviour he was weary at the well there by Samaria and all was that he might everywhere wooe and intreat poor creatures to accept of him And 2 not onely by himself but by his Messengers now he is in his glory now he sends by his Messengers to this end You see Abraham his servant went to take a wife for Isaac and David his servants went to Abigail So brethren do the Messengers of Jesus Christ his paranymphs or pronubi They speak now a good word for Jesus Christ so the Apostle I have espoused you saith he to one Husband Such are friends of the Bridegoom as John was that did what he could to bring the people to Jesus Christ even the people of the Jews and would fain have had all the people to close with him But 4. In this espousal to Jesus Christ we are to consider several things what is done 1. By the spirit he is indeed the great wooer He is sent forth to convince of righteousness and of sin the burthen of the work lyes upon the Spirit and happy it is for us that it doth so for how fruitless would our endeavours be to you else brethren we might spend our selves and be spent and when all is done complain We have spent our strength in vain for Israel is not gathered How sad for you How uncomfortable for us No no the great perswader is the Spirit he cometh and he openeth the eyes and then the poor soul seeth O he is aere alieno obrutuâ— so deep indebted to the Justice of God that whatever he can do or suffer to pay it eternity is little enough to pay it in O now for a Husband now how happy a creature should I be if some that were able to bear the debt would discharge it would take it up for her He then insinuates somewhat further and convinceth of Righteousness that there is enough in Christ if we owed a thousand Talents more O then that I had it saith the poor soul O he is willing he is willing saith the Spirit therefore he is Preached to every creature Thus if this Arm of the Lord were not revealed our report of Christ would never be believed But what then do the Ministers do Yea their word the word of Faith which they preach it is the vehiculum Spiritus It is that wherein the Spirit breatheth It is the spirit brethren ordinarily in the Law which convinceth of sin or the Gospel preached legally as the great aggravation of mens sins and it is the spirit in the Gospel preached Evangelically as that which holds forth a ransom a propitiation for sinners whereby the Spirit convinceth of righteousness Where as in a glass the Spirit of Christ doth hold out The beauty excellency love and loveliness of the Lord Jesus which is most transcendent and ravishing to the soul that seeth it but a little more particularly then 1. The Spirit by their word ordinarily not excluding other
your husband if you believe in him But I will not stand any longer upon this Doctrine I had now thought to have gone on with what is spoken concerning Jesus Christ according to the first proposal of a method But it may happily be as well if not better to many understandings to take things as they lye in the Text and therefore I shall so do Then shall the Kingdom of Heaven be likened to ten virgins which took their Lamps and went forth to meet the Bridegroom For the Adverb of Time Then I shall happily speak somewhat afterward The Kingdom of Heaven that is to say the visible Church I might inâ—ist upon it and shew you that the Church visible is a Kingdom and that Christ is the head of this Church the King of the Saints and not onely ruleth the Saints which really believe by his word and spirit which abide and dwell in them but also he ruleth his Church visible by his word and spirit and Ordinances all the Administrations of the Kingdom But that Kingdom hath been lately spoken to by a brother therefore I will wave that I might also speak something to the heavenliness of the Kingdom the Kingdom of Heaven and shew you how it is heavenly in its Original in divine Laws Institutions and many other ways But you had it held forth largely by a better hand therefore I will not trouble you again with these things so soon It shall be likened to ten virgins There is another Note which floweth clearly I think from the words and that is this The visible Church for the matter is made up of visible Saints that this is so will appear from the very Text it self First It shall be compared to ten virgins he saith not to a mixed multitude or to 10 women five wherof are virgins and 5 harlots or strumpets but to 10 virgins and what that word doth import I believe you remember since the words were opened to you such are turned from Idols to the living God as he speaks of the conversion of the Thessalonians according to the judgement of Charity for else so far as a professed subjection to Jesus Christ and renouncing them reacheth he spake according to a judgement of verity for that they did profess and so escaping the pollutions of the world forsaking gross and loose courses and professedly subject themselves to the rule of the government of Jesus Christ To such the Church visible is here compared and the most the Lord speaks of his relation to his people it is after the manner of men under such similitudes as we can conceive of and as we may be led by as by a clew into the understanding of the deep mysteries of faith and salvation But if any will think or say this is not a sure bottom to build such a truth or point upon because the virgins here are not considered as virgins but as persons accompanying the Bride going forth to meet the Bridegroom I shall first say That as they are not onely considered as virgins so neither is the consideration of their virginity to be waved for as in the similitude usually they were those virgins which did accompany the Bride so I suppose in the Apodosis now of the comparison we are to look for somewhat which may answer that virginity And you finde it in Scripture to be answered by those things I have proposed that is to say their forsaking Idolatry turning to the true God and their renouncing their former prophane conversation And then secondly I say this is not the only bottom in the Text whereupon it is builded For in the second place besides that they are called Virgins or compared to virgins they are also said to take their Lamps and surely if we must expound what is meant by the Lamps we can understand and nothing less by it then a visibility of Saintship But if this will not carry it neither methinketh the Third should be undenyable they went forth to meet the Bride-groom that is to say they went forth from home and forlook their fathers house and mothers they set upon their journey heavenward Zion-ward to meet Jesus Christ who is the Bridegroom who will ere long come to take the Bride unto himself There are many Scriptures will speak fully to the proof of this Some prophesies there are as that in the Prophet Isaiah there he speaks of a high-way shal be cast up and the unclean shal not pass over it Again none uncircumcised in heart or flesh shall enter into his Sanctuary this applyed not only to the times of their returning from Babylon but to the Gospel-times What can it speak less then this Brethren that no visible unclean creature shall ever enter into the Church of Christ It should consist of visible Saints This is plain by the tares and the wheat which while in the blade are are so like they hardly discernable in those Countries as Jerom saith And so by the Apostles wherefore else do they call them holy to the Saints which are at Corinth at Ephesus c but either they were all such visibly and in the judgement of charity or else ought to have been such Mistake not I say not that none should be a member of a Church but he that is a real Saint and shall be saved for then there could be no Church wherein we could walk or administer or receive any ordinance de fide because we know not who are such nor cannot know as I conceive nor have any rule to make an infallible judgement of any man but only probably to conclude concerning the state and conditions of men that which is invisible to us it is true its visible to God and that which is visible to him is invisible to us But visible Saints surely they ought to be Now for the further opening of this what I mean by visible Saints and Saint-ship I shall endeavour to lay it down in these particulars as plainly as I can to your understandings First Then it is requisite to Saint-ship that there be a separation to God from the world that is holiness whether in things or in persons when they are separated to God for any special use of his they are called holy Common and unclean are convertible tearms as you have in it in the Acts and as appears by the sanctifying of the Vineyards and Orchards when the Lord had had the first-fruits of them then they themselves and others had the free use of them the word in the original is they polluted or prophaned them the common use of them is distinguished thereby from the holy use whereby they were separated before from them to the Lord whether persons separated to themselves to the Lord acti agimus the Lord turns them and they are turned or whether they be altogether passive as in the first work of God we all are if it be a separation to God this is a Holiness a Saint-ship he
your souls Now this spirit works faith and that works by love and that never fails but is perfected in heaven so humility self-denyal and all those graces And not onely the graces of the spirit but this Spirit of grace dwelling in the Saints which continually supplyeth their wants so that the Lamp shall not go out forwant of oyl From the words thus understood this note will arise He that contents himself with a profession of Christ without the real saving work of grace upon his heart is a fool but he that looks to the main thing the getting grace in his heart as well as making a shew before men is a wise man Profession without the enjoyment of the Spirit of grace is but folly I will put them both together that contraries may the better illustrate one another juxta se posita and if either of them be proved both of them are proved for they will infer each other by the rule of contraries Nothing is more ordinary in Scripture then to call sinners fools sinners of all sorts are fools committing wickedness is committing folly in Israel but no fool to the wise fool wise in his own conceit there is more hope of a fool then of such a man and who are usually more wise in their own conceits then formal professors are he that hideth hatred with lying lips is a fool he that hideth hatred to God a rotten heart with lying lips whereby he professeth much love to him and carryeth a fair shew he is a fool in grain If we would know where wisdom beginneth or what the sum of wisdom is the wisest of men shall tell you the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom or the sum of wisdom some read it so And so Job who was no child in Christianity to man he saith to fear the Lord that is wisdom and to depart from evil that is understanding Mark you Whatever men place wisdom in or folly in this is the very sum of wisdom to fear God fear is put for all grace a manfearing God and eschewing evil was the highest character the Lord gave of Job It is indeed the root of all that good we do and evil we avoid and I will and but one Scripture in the â—hiddenarts thou shalt make me to know wisdom it is one thing to be wise headed and tongued and another to be wise hearted and therefore in Scripture nothing more ordinary then to set forth wisdom that is true indeed by the heart God himself is said to be wise of heart Foolish creatures Eph. a silly Dove without a heart They may have head enough notion enough flashing light appearing to others enough but they are without a heart they have not the great work there a new head and an old heart a full head and an empty heart a light and burning profession and a dark dead and cold heart he that takes up in such a condition is a fool an errant fool For the further clearing of this I shall enquire a little wherein the nature of wisdom and folly lyeth and then shew you how it is Applicable in truth unto this profession of Christ without the possession of him Wisdom then I conceive may consist of these three generals 1. In the obtaining what we want the good we want and therfore come short of happiness because we want it 2. In the keeping the good we have when once we have it And 3. In avoiding the evil we fear which would render us miserable in these three things I take it wisdom consists Now to speak a little to each of these and see how we may prove the formal professor by his defect and falling short in each them in all of them and for the first the obtaining of the good we want to make us happy Alas you know brethren we are all fallen short of the glory of God and by nature are without him and without Christ in the world and have not the things which accompany salvation neither he then is a wise man in general 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who knoweth those principles and ends which are universally necessary to a mans good his chiefest and most general good So that there are I conceive three things in this respect under this head and so proportionably under the other which go to the compleating of wisdom First there must be a knowledge of the end and a propounding of this end to a mans self an end you know is nothing but that which is good either really so or appearingly so for that is the object of the Will goodness as truth is the object of the Minde and understanding a man cannot appetere malum as it is malum and be a man to delight in evil as it is evil is diabâ—lical to delight in sâ—n or folly as it is pleasant as it is suitable to the corrupt nature to the soul the Will crooked and deprayed this is humane because though a man do thus pâ—opose sâ—n as his â—nd yet not as it evil but as it is good to his corrupt judgement and Will that is to say suitable and convenient to him An so sor suffering there is no man living can prevail with himself to be willing to be miserable they would be happy Well then it is good which is the end either real or apparent But now here in this spiritual wisdom and folly we must understand his end suitable that is to say understand it of the most supreme principle and ultimate good and that is God for what good else is there that can indeed make the soul happy but God in Christ for that good which must make blessed it must be commensurate to the soul so as to be able to fall and satisfie it else theâ—e will be somewhat wanting still and alas for all other goods below God it may be said that which is wanting cannot be numbred Now there are two things considerable in the soul of a man especially to which there must be an answerableness in the end which is to be followed unto injoyment else the soul cannot be happy The first is the vast capacity and comprehension of the soul to which there must be an answerable fulness in the object and the end else the soul cannot rest upon it as its Center and happiness and this we may take notice of especially in those two faculties of the Understanding and the Will the Affections they are but as it were the several motions of the Will a kind of Appendix to it Now to these two faculties in the supreme and ultimate end there must be an answerable ratio veri boni great enough to fill or satisfie the understanding or mind that hath for its object truth and not one truth or another but all truth it is not satisfyed with the partial discoveries of truth or here and there a little but it would have all now the Lord is the highest and the best in
that this is folly but the world counteth this the greatest folly that can be to make so much ado about the soul-affairs to trouble themselves so much about the interest in Christ they are the wise men that have heads deep and large to compass their designs for the world and to have a profession of Christ the thing may be of some use but the thing it self it is but a burthen they will never trouble themselves with a Lamp and a Vessel full of Oyl besides it is enough to have a Lamp But surely Brethren the Lord judgeth otherwise you see who is the fool in Christs sense and what will it avail if a man the world account him a wise man and he himself deem himself a wise man and Jesus Christ accounteth him a fool he never giveth names for nothing they are sure to answer them sooner or later the easiest course Brethren is not the wisest then the Sluggard were the wisest man 2. It may serve to reprove and convince us of much folly then that is among us Stultorum plena sunt omnia all Proressions are ful of fools and none more then the Profession of Jesus Christ for the higher the end the greater the folly in pretending to it and missing of it I doubt brethren all the Congregation are full of such fools as these are it appears to be so in the Prophets time Who is wise saith he and he will consider these things c. and Prudent and he shall know them Who is wise by this interrogation there is implied a paucity of them as in that Who is there among you that walks in darkness and seeth no light they are not very ordinary so again Who hath believed our report and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed May I not take up the Prophets complaint now and say who in this Congregation is wise who so wise as to consider their latter end to provide for it not to rest in a name in a profession Some I doubt not but there are who are able to produce their Evidences Christ in them the hope of Glory but are they so many as were to be wished brethren do you not take up short of Jesus Christ rest in the means as you have heard before 3. Then it shall serve to stir us up to awaken us to look about us for that is one thing also which that interrogation imports to stir us up to Consider our wayes and our Condition and State Whether we have this oyl in our vessel as well as in the Lamp surely Brethren For Motives 4. This is a very pressing one which our Saviour covertly giveth in the Text they were foolish virgins which took no oyl and the Prophet Who is wise and he will consider these things for men would not be counted fools of all things men had rather be wicked and counted so then be counted fools and will rather shew their wit in froth and jests and over-reaching then be counted fools you know the affectation of wisdom was the first temptation and ever since vain man would be wise though he be born like a wild Asses Colt we are most stupid Creatures and yet would have a name to be wise and are indeed contented to be fools in Gods account rather then we would not be wise men in our own account and the account of the world desperate fools this is cum ratione insanire if any thing be O brethren if we would be wise indeed take the advice of wisdom it self or the wonderful Councellor take heed of resting in this Condition without oyl in your vessels he is wise indeed that is wise in the latter end that thou mayst be wise in the latter end he that liveth in reputation of a wise man he thinketh himself so and dyeth a fool in the account of God himself and all others this is the fool in grain the more care to get and keep our vessels full of oyl the more wiser we shall approve our selves 2. Dear friends Consider seriously now You think you follow Jesus Christ and your Lamps are burning but what a sad disappointment will it be and confusion For hope disappointed confounds a man as it is in Job they are confounded because they hoped you hope for heaven now if you be disappointed and your Lamps go out in obscure darkness just when you have the most need of them O how will you be able to bear it O therefore whatever you do labour to get this oyl make sure of this brethren never give the Lord over follow him up and down in all the wayes of grace until thou have gotten thy vessel full thy heart filled with grace with his fear his love with humility self-denial O look to it that thou close with Christ that you do not mistake somewhat else instead of him beg the Spirit Brethren to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith and you may have all grace to abound towards you and in you that having an al-sufficiency alway in all things you may abound in every good work your hearts being ful there being a Spring to eternal life that your Lamps may never be put out but you may appear wise in your latter end which trieth indeed which are the wise and which the foolish Virgins O be diligent in improving all the Ordinances for that end received ye the Spirit by the works of the the Law or by the hearing of Faith You have heard it is the dew wherein the Manna descends it is the vehiculum we come to hear all of us O take heed how you hear with what hearts you come before him and how you attend to this word do you know in what part of it the Spirit will descend will come upon the heart at which Sermon in which part of the Sermon O brethren if we come with vessels full conceited with Pride full of Earth stopped up with the world how can we expect this oyl should be poured into us therefore Come labour to bring your empty vessels to the Lord in his Ordinances for it is observable as long as there was an empty vessel the oyl run in the widows case and so it would be here he never sent a poor empty broken Spirit a poor Creature poor in spirit to come humbled and trembling in sense of its wants and worthlesness he never sent them away empty when the vessel is full he will not pour out the oyl it would be lost there is no room to receive it Again Labour to number your days brethren that you may apply your hearts unto wisdom to this wisdom to salvation this is a rich piece of skill that is not to be learned but in the school of Christ to number our days Consider the shortness of our time how short we cannot tell for ought we know this night he was a fool in grain
a carelesness in us for if he came more speedily what is the language Let us eat and drink for to morrow we shall dye whether he be a swift witness against men or whether he tarry all is one if he do not speedily execute the Sentence which is past upon men evil doers their hearts are fully set in them to do wickedly and if he do threaten to come speedily and avenge himself upon them let us eat and drink for to morrow c. forgetting the after-clap that after death cometh judgement do not then pretend brethren this for your selves and lay the fault upon God as Adam did and all the sons of Adam are ready to do Say not then If God had threatened as he did Niniveh Yet forty days and Niniveh shall be overthrown yet forty days and thou shalt come to judgement sinner thou wouldst have repented as well as they did no but as Abraham speaks to the rich man in the parable if they will not believe Moses and the Prophets they will not believe though one rose from the dead So in this case if thou wilt not repent and believe though the coming of Christ do tarry a while I will be bold to say thou wouldst not repent if thou shouldest know that within forty days or forty hours thy soul should be taken from thee the fool in the Gospel when he thought he had many years before him and goods laid up for them he nourished his heart as in a day of slaughter and when it was told him that this night his soul should be taken from him do you think the fool had so much wisdom to repent we read it not nor do I see any cause to think it A second sort which are to be reproved or convinced of sin are such as mock at the coming of Christ It is a prophecy of the last days in the last days there shall come scoffers walking after their own lusts saying where is the promise of his coming for since the fathers fell asleep all things continue as they were since the beginning of the world That these are the last days if we had no o her Argument the impudence of many now adays denyinng resur ection and judgement and any such things as these are are too clear a proof of it Observe Where is the promise of his coming a promise to the people of Christ for he cometh to give them the Crown of righteousness having fought their fight and finished their course c. but a threatning to the sinners of the world as that the seed of the woman shall break the Serpents head Well you tell us of a glorious appearing of Christ but where is it we see no alteration all things continue as they were there is no sign of such a coming O what wretched Athiesm is in the heart brethren that because the hand of God doth not presently seize upon us therefore we make a mock at it thinking there is no such thing O this unbelief is the ground of all departing from God do not your actions proclaim this that you expect not his coming you rather make a mock at it you make so light a matter of sin of the most horrid sins Yea some that seem not to Question his coming though I think that is the ground of it their secret unbelief that there will be any such or no they do even provoke the Lord and pluck him out of his place they challenge the God of heaven that say Let him make speed and hasten his work that we may see it and let the counsel of the holy one draw nigh and come that we may know it that we may feel it for we fear it not this is the language of the men that declare their sin like Sodom heed it not stout-hearted sinners that set God at defyance bid him do his worst they will abide all that cometh rather then they will part with their lusts wherein they walk as the Apostle hath it they would fain see who shall controul them who should cut their Cart-ropes and Cords of vanity wherewith they draw iniquity and toyl and tear themselves like horses in the drudgery of sin Well I will speak a word or two to all these it is a terrible one indeed the Lord give us trembling hearts at it First However long it seems to stay it will come before thou art ready for it and for all this gallantry of spirit that sinners cloath themselvs with the stoutest-hearted sinner that heareth this word when that cometh shall quake and tremble What cared Belshazzar for the God of Israel he thought it was nothing to carouse in the vessels of the Sanctuary but you see with two or three words writing what an Agony it wrought him into Amos 5. 18. You desire the day of the Lord poor creatures you do not know the day of the Lord is darkness and not light your hearts will dye within you like stones when it cometh upon you Observe it brethren usually those that are the most stout-hearted in setting the Lord at defiance are most dejected when it cometh I will the Atheist say if this were true that this day would ever come it were something but we see no appearance of it Why Brethren are you such Atheists I hope there is none such here but will own the Scriptures to be the word of the living God and how often have you it there written he hath appointed a day wherein he will judge the world by Jesus Christ and God is not slack as men count slackness as some count it as if he would never come believe it believe it Sinners your judgement lingers not and your damnation slumbereth not but travels as fast as you do and it will meet you one day and seize upon you O if God should send such a hand to write upon the wall of the Taverns where men are carouzing c. mene mene thou art weighed c. this night shall thy soul c. Deut. 5. 5. He that believeth not these things is an Atheist indeed worse then the Devil himself who believeth and trembleth James 2. 19. But me thinks reason it self should evince it and teach us that the first Principle of all things made himself the end of all things He that is first must also be the last and therefore such as would not serve that end and honour God here he will honour himself upon them he must needs be righteous and give every one according to his works Now Sinners do not receive according to their works many times here but they are lively and grow old and are mighty in power their seed are established before them c As it is in that place of Job their houses are safe from fear neither is the rod of God upon them they have no changes and therefore they fear not God they spend their days in wealth and in a moment go down to the grave
that is to say without any tedious sickness such as Job had and therefore they encourage themselves in their evil ways they say what profit is there if we should pray unto him we prosper as well as any who is the Almighty that we should serve him Let him depart from us for we desire not the knowledge of his ways whereas a Job a Paul that are upright fearing God eschewing evil exercising themselves to keep a conscience void of offence toward God and toward men they shall be plagued every morning God shall take them by the neck and shake them to pieces and pour out their gall upon the ground and break them with breach upon breach Now brethren if Sinners were not reserved to a day of judgement and destruction that they should he brought forth to the day of wrath how would the Lord be righteous and just it is a righteous thing with God to render tribulation to them that trouble you â—but to you that are troubled rest with us Again Thirdly Remember this Thou despis 〈…〉 the riohes and long suffering of God not knowing that this goodness leads thee to repentance It hath a tendency thereto God is not slack but is long-suffering to us not willing any should perish he waits to be gracious Sinners he giveth you space to repent though he tell you not how long that space shall continue that while it is called to day you might hearken to his voice Now instead of turning to the Lord you despise this his patience let him wait upon whom he pleaseth you desire him not to wait upon you but let the day of the Lord come that you may see it because you prosper and your brests are full of milk and your bones watered with marrow as it is in the Original you make a scoff at the judgements of God and mock at all his terrors as if nothing concerning you What is this but not only to break the yoke of Christ and his Cords of obeisance but the Cords of a man and of love wherewith he draweth sinners towards Repentance it followeth in the text that such men treasure up wrath against the day of wrath after their own hardness and impenitent heart let them put off the day of judgement as well as they can they do treasure up wrath against the day of wrath treasures of wrath are abundance he stores up treasures as we do sin God seals up such mens sins among his treasures indeed you fill up many bags and apace as a few great stones will fill a bag over little stones will do nothing heightens your sins more then this the despising the goodness and patience and forbearance of God riches and treasures of goodness and long-suffering abused and perverted to a wrong end to encourage your hearts to strengthen your hands to sin Swell the treasures of the displeasure which hangs over your heads every moment Ah dear friends that God would give some poor hard-hearted Sinner a trembling heart at this word I doubt it is some of our cases do you know what you do Sinners you heap up sin they are gon over your head I that is not al you treasure up wrath against the day of wrath that day when all the treasures shall be broken open the Sluces opened and the tyde of streaming vengeance shall carry away poor sinners to that bottomless gulf O who may abide this day No Nor do not think You shall have worse then other men and you hope not so bad you never yet sinned as some others have done you bless God you are no Drunkards nor Extortioners you never sinned as Sodom nor as Gomorrhah suppose so Yet it may be more tolerable for them then for many of us who shall despise this long-suffering of God and the riches of his goodness to us The Lord of that servant that encourageth himself to sin upon his Lord his delaying his coming he will come in a day when he looks not for him and he will divide him asunder Either rend his soul from his body whether he will or no this night shall thy soul be taken from thee Sinners are not willing to part with theâ—r souls and no marvel when they behold hell from beneath moved for them Or else he will separate them from himself and the Congregation of his people for ever they shall not stand in the Congregation of his people though here they were mixed together Or else he will bring upon him the most exquisite tormenting evils as men sawn asunder or as Agag or as they Dan. 3. 29. So in the Evangelist And give him his portion with Hypocrites as some gloss it they are the free-holders of hell the lowest place they have for simulata sanctitas duplex iniquitas and therefore they shall receive double even according to their deeds See brethren we may be his servants in name and profession and he may commit to us the Stewards office also and if this be our own end a sad word for us as well as for you for loose and contentious and ungodly Ministers and yet notwistanding perish with deepest destruction if we despise this long-suffering toward us 3. Again It reproveth such as of prophaness of their spirits upon every slight occasion will be calling upon God to judge them appealing to him nothing more ordinary in prophane mens mouths then this the Lord judge them Yea more fearful indeed so fearful that I hardly think the Devil himself would so speak for they believe and tremble that God would damn them calling for that day upon every little vexation when men suspect them or censure them for any thing they would clear themselves and to that end use such fearful imprecations as these Ah wo be to them that say let the day of the Lord come what if the Lord should take such men at their word and put an end to his long-suffering and say Well judge thee I will this hour thy soul shall be taken from thee would they not be in an other Note you need not call for it it will come fast enough 4. It reproveth such as out of a conceit they have of their own innocency they will be calling for that day Job himself was blame-worthy that he presseth so much upon this O that I might come to him where I might find him that I might come even to his seat I would order my cause before him and fill my mouth with arguments I would hear the words which he would answer me and understand what he would say unto me And so again Chap. 13. Withdraw thine hand far from me and let not thy dread make me afraid then call thou and I will answer thee charge upon me what thou canst of wickedness or prophaness and I will clear my self or let me speak and answer thou me let me be the Plaintiff saying out the sad condition of my soul and do thou answer me justifie thy
he is asleep herein indeed is the exceeding riches of his grace that though we grieve him by our slighting of his presence and Communications of himself to us so as to fall asleep in the midst of them that he will abide no longer yet his heart yearns toward us and his Love perswadeth him to return again to the soul and he will try again if we will let him in but we are asleep Behold I stand at the door and knock it is wonderful indeed that he should do so but so he doth and how long doth he stand at some of our hearts when we by a sleepy spirit grieved him away how long doth he tarry before we open you see in the Case of the Church I sleep but my heart waketh open to me my love my dove my undesiled how sweet compellations he useth though thou hast shut me out like a kind love yet my love open to me my Locks are wet with the dew of the night much he endures before we open and do but observe when she knew it to be his voice yet she hath many excuses I have put off my Coat c. and all this while he stays but what unkind dealing is this when by his word he knocks alas it sinketh not any further then the ear there it dyeth knocks by the voice of his Spirit and by rods and afflictions sometimes and yet we keep him out this is the sixth Seventhly When we fall asleep we little know how longwe shall lie in that Condition therefore take heed of it O when David fell into that sleep how long did he lie in it nine months at least and he might have lain nine years except the Lord had taken a more then ordinary course with him So the Patriarchs how long did they lie in their sleep and their Consciences neveâ— awaked until their affliction this is clear in the very case of the Church in the Canticles how long did he call and call again and wait upon her and yet she is not awaked a little stirred she is but alas lies down again as a man half awaked until at last he was pressed to come nearer to her to put his hand in at the hole-of the Lock and then at last she got off her bed with much ado First He was fain to come nearer to her with some inward touch and offer of his grace offering as I may say with his hand to open the bolts wherewith her heart was bolted against him and then she waked and not before you see these virgins here slept until the Cry came and how long they slept who can tell O it is a sad thing brethren to be so long without Communion and Fellowship with the Lord Jesus to be so long under weakness and inability to exercise our graces that we can do nothing but poor weak service so long to keep out Jesus Christ and when do we know that he will come so near to us as throughly to awake us what if he should never do it until our dying day what a sad end would that be Eighthly Remember this brethren though you may think of case in such a Condition of sleeping it will be no case to you but trouble for usually what is the râ—ason we unbend our bows loose the Cords we think we may have ease take on more easily and fairly for heaven then we have done now the main part of our work is done we have gotten the oyl in our vessels and a little assurance it may be of his love therefore now we may take our ease and so fall asleep believe it brethren it will be a little case to you and it will appear if you consider these two or three things 1. While you are in that sleep if you be believers indeed you will not have ease what distempered sleeps do men sleep that are in continual fear or that should not sleep and know they should not sleep it will hazard their lives is their sleep sweet ordinarily surely no when a man sleepeth and in his sleep is terrified with dreams how unquiet is he truly a believer he never sleepeth heart and all if he did it were somewhat like now a Hypocrite doth he sleepeth heart and all that is first asleep that never was awake and therefore he may take more pleasure But alas the Child of God all the while he is off from Christ and the enjoyment of him he is like a stone from its center like an Iron pluckt from the Loadstone that hath yet a â—ingering towards him will not rest until it return to him again so it is not quiet altogether therefore of all men the people of God are the veriest fools when they give way to sin or lie down upon the lap of sinful delights and fall asleep because they have a still principle within them which is kept awake a seed of God which still interrupteth them and they cannot take their fill of delight nor rest in sin therefore to them it is returning to folly when once peace is spoken to them I appeal to the experiences of all the Saints whether when they are in a sleepy frame a fit of security hath seized upon them the presence of Christ is departed whether they have that rest and quiet in their spirits it is an uncomfortable condition to them 2. Because usually when his people are in such a Condition the Lord is sain to take some violent course with them more then he would to awake them so that not only their sleep is troublesom but their awaking is also sad to them Here there is a Cry made whether it be by the voice of the word lifted up terrible threatnings Or whether the voice of his rod which cryeth it is terrible it is not a still voice happily will do it but it must be something that will make both our ears to tingle as it was in Elias case poor man he was asleep a Lust had so besotted him that is to say his carnal affection to his Children he honoured them above God that love devoured his love and eat up his zeal for God and the Lord warns him sendeth a Prophet to him and tels him what he was like to trust to he had set his Conscience a little to work before so far as to reprove them But if nothing else will do it awake him throughly What then I will do a thing that shall make both the ears of him that heareth it tingle It shall awaken him and awaken others the boring of the ear may cost us something he will give us an alarm a strong one at least if he do not beat up our Quarters where we lie lurking And you that are souldiers and have been in this Condition hath it been comfortable to you when you have been so beaten up I think not sure O what hurrying then and terrour is upon every man when he is so surprized So nothing else would do to the Brethren of
get this oyl in their vessels they slept away their opportunity the Gospel must be preached for a witness to all Nations and now they can have no cloak for their sin for their unreadiness for his appearing the â—ord will manage his affairs so as that every mouth may be stoped and confess before him That none of his own may be â—left therefore he sendeth a Cry before him for none that are unfit for entrance with him into the Marriage shall enter into it no soul shall go to heaven in a sleep they are not fit for it as you heard before nor when he cometh will he wait upon any now is the time of waiting to be gracious to poor souls then is the time of recompence either love or displeasure â—e will not tarry then and therefore it is said here in the Text those that were ready went with him in to the supper of the Lamb into the marriage those that had their Lamps trimmed and the door was shut if the Saints themselves should not be found ready in some measure he would not then stay love is impatient of delay then now he would not lose any and therefore he is long-suffering and patient long before he cometh for that very end because he would have none of his perish so also for the same reason doth he thus warn them by a Voyce a Cry to rouze them awake them lest if they should be found unready they might miss of entring with him For the Application Then brethren let us take notice of the goodness and tenderness of the Lord to his own people in awakening them though it may be it may disease them a little at first to have such a cry in their ears as not to suffer them to sleep when they would nestle themselves upon their pillow he is loath to leave them behind he will not lose any of them and therefore he rouzeth them If Jesus Christ had left his Church in Cant. 5. Or his Disciples sleeping and gone his ways their condition had been sad If death had come upon poor David while under that guilt in the matter of Vriah and in so deep a sleep how sad had his condition been and so for Jonas if the belly of hell had been his grave the belly of the Whale and he had not been awaked out of that sleep what had become of him he had miscarryed for ever or at least he had suffered great loss and therefore it is much tenderness in the Lord to his poor people that he will not let them sleep but he rouzeth them up 2. How easie should this make and how should it sweeten the severest of Gods dealings with us to awake us Suppose we have a dreadful sound in our ears when nothing else will do it the terrors of God displayed and set in battle array against our souls God writeth bitter things against us and all little enough to awaken us we are so secure it may be It must be the lowder voyce of the rod that must do it if other means will not and this seemeth not joyons but grievous at present but it brings forth the peaceable fruits of righteousness O! the end will be sweet when the soul thereby shall be awaked and kept awake and ready for the appearing of the Lord Jesus I know the people of God would not for a world that day should come upon them and finde them in such a frame so heavy so listless so untoward as they are sometimes and know not how to shake it off I but give the Lord leave to shake it off bear then the Cry though it be loud sometimes and seem offensive if this be the end to awaken thee O why shouldst not thou bear it thankfully and chearfully 3. If there be a Cry going before his coming Then brethren see whether or no you have not had this Cry in part sounding in your cars and what use you have made of it hath it awaked you or not The Gospel it is here the voyce of the watchmen that continually stir you up and tell you the day of Christ is coming is at hand If not the general yet your particular day the day of his coming to our souls particularly cannot be far off this is the daily cry in our ears and O that we could cry lowder and lift up our voyce with more affection to your souls but as such poor worms are able we cry to you we are messengers sent before his face the Cry is behold he cometh go forth to meet him Now brethren where are you Are you upon your beds still How many have been awaked by this awakening word the terrors of the Lord against them that sleep Have you done any thing to your further sitting for heaven Can you with comfort go forth to meet Jesus Christ open to him when he knocks Surely you have not made use of this Cry that hath been made Ah how many are sleeping as deeply as ever and do not yet dream of his coming though they know not but that he is at the door and this night their souls shall be taken from them 4. Then how should this stir us up every one to attend to the cry that is made and obey it now you have the cry made in the word this is our preaching to awaken you Look not upon Sermons only as the affectionate discourse of a poor creature that wisheth well to your souls but look upon it as the warning word of Jesus Christ as the Cry that goeth before his presence afterwards himself wâ—ll come and that speedily and how soon you know not and as he findeth you then so it will go with you O that the Lord would speak by his Spirit and rattle you up a little poor sleepy souls both wise and foolish virgins not that I desire the grief of yours or mine own soul for if I make you sorry who is it that must make me glad but you that are made sorry by me as the Apostle saith Yet dear friends as I hope I could be contented rather to be shaken out of a sleep my self then be found sleeping at the coming of Christ so had I rather it should be with you how shall I bespeak your poor souls this day I would fain prevail with one poor soul to shake off this drowsiness and sloath and sleepiness that is upon us O arise arise for your souls sake for your peace sake as you tender your comfort now you hear the Cry going before him think with your selves sometimes Can you look Jesus Christ in the face with such a frame of heart as you have every day O arise arise will such sleepy souls be fit to sing Allelujahs to eternity to God O arise arise Deborah to sing praises to the Lord awake then that sleepest you cannot else be fit for heaven this the first Consider secondly If this Cry will not awaken you you shall have a more dreadful sound in your
such persons of all others 4. It will be a word of Terror then to all hypocrites and formalists and all sinners in that this day of the Lord will surprize you and come upon you at unawares What maketh death so terrible to poor sinners when they come to it but the judgement which followeth it so that let a sinner have warning of it and it is terrible but when it cometh upon a sudden and unexpected this exceedingly addeth to the terror of it it amazeth astonisheth O what a terror must it needs be to the old world that when their hopes were in the spring in their verdure then all on a sudden the world was on a flood the fountains of the deep and the clouds above conspired to swallow them up And will it not be think you as great an astonishment when the world at the end shall look for nothing less and before they are aware the world shall be on a flame about their ears O then the sinners in Sion will be afraid and fearfulness will surprize the hypocrite put as good a face upon it now as you can How terrible is a sudden storm upon the poor Mariners which they never lookt for they are all inveloped in darkness the clouds and seas seem to come together How terrible was the coming of Gideon upon the Midianiâ—es on a sudden at midnight when all asleep likely to see and hear so many Trumpets blowing so many pitchers clattering so many Lamps burning such a cry the sword of the Lord and of Gideon all on a sudden O how terrible it was it put them besides themselves they knew not what to do they thrust their swords in one anothers bowels O that we had but hearts to believe how terrible a day it will be to us if it overtake us as a snare Yea surely it will have somewhat of amazement terror in it to the people of God themselves that shal be found sleeping with whom it shall be midnight in respect of security And though they may avoid the ruine and destruction of the day they shall have a share in the distraction and terror of it but poor sinners poor hypocrites poor formalists shall have the amazing terror and never come to themselves never recover themselves but perish for ever by it 5. Then knowing the terror of the Lord we perswade men to this watching which is the main thing intended in the Parable And concerning which you have heard somewhat already having spoken so largely to the Privation or defect of this watching in the slumbering and sleeping of the Virgins Nor do I intend to insist largely upon this watching here only here I suppose it most naturally falls into this main part of the Parable Watching here is as much as diligent taking heed to our selves that that day come not upon us at unawares As a man that watcheth against an enemy is surprized he takes diligent heed so our Saviour take heed to your selves that that day come not upon you as a snare so take heed to your selves and the flock over which the Lord hath made you overseers c. Watch therefore saith he for after my departure grievous wolves will enter As a party of soldiers when they would take diligent heed to themselves lest they be surprized by their enemy they watch they express it that way so here then The Exhortation is brethren to us all To take diligent heed to our selves lest we be surprized by the coming of Jesus Christ for we know not when he will come there is no determined time and if we take not diligent heed it will come upon us unawares You have had some of the Motives to press this duty heretofore or the Caution against sleeping I pray you remember how you cannot be too often put in mind of them surely our Saviour cometh over with it so often again and again you have heard the danger you are in while you sleep But we will rather take up a Consideration or two from hence First the difficulty of the duty so continually to take so diligent heed If the good man had known what hour the thief would have come he might more easily have watched to have prevented him it is much more easie to hold out such a watch for a while then constantly now every hour being in danger because we know not what hour he will come this is more difficult which should not discourage us but whet us on to double diligence Jam per periculum animâ— Alexandri It is an easie thing to be a Christian as many are lazy droans listless sleepy Professors that alas alas would scarce ever be found upon their watch when ever he should come But it is a matter of great difficulty and will work all your faculties to the utmost to watch for his appearing 2. The dreadfulness of the thing if you be surprized would you have Jesus Christ find you with your ornaments laid aside find you naked how will you hold up your heads and look him in the face either you will perish with the foolish Virgins and I doubt that will prove the portion of many of our souls or else you will be saved but you must run through fear through some shame confusion distraction when you are taken unawares Besides you are not of the night but of the day saith the Apostle that that day should not take you at unawares 1 Thes 5. 5. And otherwise we give not God the end of his dispensations which is that we might watch What then should we do surely brethren There are two things specially for us to do according to the scope of this Parable which our Saviour thus applyeth because the foolish Virgins and the wise both by their sleeping suffered such loss the one lost all their precious souls all the world not being able to recover them the other lost their comfort and sweet peace and quiet and had much coniusion in their latter end the soul being in a hurry to make ready when it should go forth to meet the Lord Jesus should have nothing else to do but to dye Therefore this watching being opposed to both their sleeping I conceive there are two things specially in it First That you be sure to have your oyl in your vessels ready that we have grace in our hearts Take heed to your selves diligently then in the name of Jesus Christ that you give not sleep to your eys nor slumber to your eye-lids give not the Lord nor your souls rest until you have this Communication of Christ to your poor souls how many poor hearts that hear this word have not a dram of grace though you have long had a name to be Christians yet that hath been all Brethren What do you mean can you dye comfortably hopefully except you have grace in your hearts this oyl this Spirit of grace dwelling in you will any thing else enable you to lift up your faces before him but his
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
was not long after the Israelites came in out of Egypt before the Lord denounced against them Said in his wrath they should not enter into his rest though he bore their manners indeed afterward yet they had quickly lost their hope of Canaan Believe it brethren God is now more swift and more peremptory in his determination against souls in these days of Gospel-light then heretofore O how shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation saith the Apostle your judgement is nearer then when you had no profession no name If a man continue a wild Olive or prove an empty branch he will not be long endured now if men did believe this sure they would count it gross folly to trifle away the season specially being so short a season and so uncertain a season who can tell if he putoff Christ how soon his heart shall be sealed up and the everlasting doors of his soul have locks and bolts to clap upon them that they shall never lift them up to receive the King of glory and then they are undone for ever First Use then will be to reprove us all of this folly as many as are guilty how many poor graceless souls hear this Word this day you think you are the wise men who by your wits can live and by your industry increase your selves for the world but if you will believe God rather than your own deceitful hearts or Satan you are fools was he not a fool that provided so industriously for many years when he had not a day to live This night shall thy soul be taken away from thee and not one thought nor act of care for eternity nor for his precious soul though he might be sure he must live to eternity Psal 49 1â— and 13. you hope that your selves or else your houses shall continue for ever which maketh you so industrious to build inlarge and beautifie them and fill them with treasures Ah poor creatures that spin their bowels out to make a Cobweb one stroke with a Wing sweeps it quite away Psal 39 6. In vain do men trouble themselves geting goods and know not who shall enjoy them whether themselves shall enjoy them one day or whether any of theirs shall enjoy them a day but you are sure that you must indure an eternity your souls must last whether your houses do or not either with God or separated from him and yet you generally neglect them are we not fools are not the most part of us such fools many deal with God thu so youth they must take their pleasure in old age they will not take so much pains as Diong when he took the golden cloak from Apollo said This garment neither agreeth with Summer nor Winter in Summer it is heavy in Winter it hath no warmth c but because men have some secret reserves of others that they think will bear them out they can ward off many such blows as these they never reach their hearts because they have a privy coat of Male some carnal reasonings or other wherewith they oyl their spirits that this Ink will not stick will not take impression therefore I will inforce this Use with some Considerations which I intend as to cut off the very sinews and strength of a Formalists security First We have not one day at command this is that which men do not believe they think they have much time before them specially those that are young and indeed old sinners dote in this point as well as others they always think they may live a year longer still if they were never so old yea they promise themselves long life and then they cannot but believe themselves they have so good an opinion of the faithfulness and wisdom of their hearts but alas do you not know the number of your moneths is determined and have you one day at command Guido Bituricens reports that one inviting Menodamus to a Banquet to morrow he asked him why he did invite him to morrow he durst never promise himself to morrow expecting death every hour we are but a breaths distance from eternity who can say he hath such an interest in the dispensation of God as to say he shall live unt ll to morrow who can say that is in unbelief but he shall be in hell before the morning light before another Sabbath do you not believe this wherefore was that written Thou fool this night c. but for our learning that sinners might hear and fear Men have not leisure to provide for their souls untill they have filled such a bagg compassed such an estate then they shall be at leisure They must go to such a City and buy and sell get gain but what if in the midst of all that thou be cut off and have not grace what will become of thee then you cannot command a day Can you say with Ioshua Sun stand still and hasten not or Sun go backward will the Lord hearken to your voyce as he did to theirs that so you may have a little time when your glass is run to work out your salvation with O that ever we should be so vain to believe our own hearts without the least ground in the world and not to believe God where there is all the reason and arguments and all the experience in the world to confirm it Secondly Remember this brethren We have not God at command the Spirit bloweth not where we but were it self listeth therefore Millers and Marâ—iners will not lose the wind they have it not in their fist This is a deep deceit in the opinion that lays men to sleep they are so secure putting off the main Work they dream they have God and grace at command as if he were bound to give them grace and heaven when ever they shall think they have enough of sin O no brethren he will not be commanded by us no sure will he be alway intreated by us there is a time when he will not be found It is not your Lord Lord open to us that will move him if once the door be shut against you Then shall they call but I will not answer they shall seek me early but shall not find me and what reason is there you should expect God should be at your beck when you have so long resisted his Spirit in his Word and his Spirit stirring and moving upon your hearts whereby he hath striven and taken pains with you when the Lord had his bosome opeâ— his wing spread his hands stretched out his voyce lifted up his Embassadors sent to woo you you would not know when the grave and hell shall swallow you up or open for you and you think you can have God at your call believe it believe it He will not be found He is not at your command Thirdly Remember this That you have not your hearts at command neither you cannot alway move towards God this is usually a
to Jesus Christ every weight and the sin which so easily be setteth us as the Apostle saith If we come with the world rooted in our hearts it is five to one but we shall be tryed as the young man in the Gospel was and as that other was the Foxes have holes c. you hear no more of that forward man afterward O but we are young and therefore we may have time enough before us it is time enough for us to look after grace many years hence No my brethren it is your duty to remember your Creator in the daies of your youth while the milk is in your breasts and you have some strength to lay out upon Christ The first-fruits were not to be delayed to be paid Exod. 22. 29. A young Samuel seasoned so young a young Timothy they may be eminent servants of Jesus Christ when others at the same years are but beginning to enter upon the work Besides is not thy life as uncertain as anothers do you not see that young men dye even as the old and young men are like to perish as well as old if they be not found with oyl in their Lamps and young men may enter with the Bridegroom as well as old if they be found ready And therefore I pray you for Christs sake do not so deceive your selves but while it is called to day young and old hearken to this voice of God and put noâ— off this main work any longer Alas but you will say my case is the case of these foolish Virgins I have long made a profession and I have my grace to seek and therefore there is no hope for me a gray-headed sinner who have trifled away my time You know some were called at the 11. hour Brethren and indured not the heat of the day with others and yet miscarried not while the day of grace lasts there is hope and while the Lord knocks by his Spirit and Word there is hope that to us appears to be a day of grace and that thy spirit is moved is yet a further Argument And therefore be of good courage if he have given thee a heart now at last to look after him and though thou lingeredst with Lot until God was even fain to pull thee out of the burning the everlasting burnings thou haste so much the more cause to magnifie the grace of Christ toward thee that he would after so much abuse of the day of grace look upon thee at all and when thou wert as a dry stick no strength nor vigour to serve him at all therefore God could have no eye at thy service nor any thing thou wert like to do but meerly to exalt his grace and therefore for ever thou maist more easily Conquer over-that temptation of resting in any thing in thy self priding thy self in any thing of thine own and give him the glory of all in an humble walking before him The second demonstration of their folly is that they went to the creature for grace They said to the wise give c. It is a note or point of great folly to seek unto the creature when men have neglected to seek to Christ then to go to the creature for grace you see this is the practise of foolish Virgins how far we may urge this I cannot tell but me thinks we do not put it too far if we may stand upon it at all Whether they would now at last being sensible of their want of the oyl in the vessel the grace in the heart they would have some of that oyl which they had in their vessels or whether only somewhat to make their Lamps burn as they did before it appears not nor yet what their highest â—nd was in it appears not if they aimed not at the highest end Gods glory and their own salvation as the ultimate end then they were grosly foolish in that respect for to miss the end is the most fundamental point of errour and folly but if they be supposed to aim right yet there is this Argument of their folly in the very Text which shall be all I will say for the confirmation of it They take not the right means for the accomplishing that end and therefore they are foolish for wherein doth folly consist else but chiefly in this they find not out or use not the right means for the attaining of a right end Now was this a right means to go to the creature to the wise Virgins for oyl Give us of your oyl this argues either desperate ignorance that they knew not whither to go to get oyl that they were ignorant of the Fountain of Israel the fulness that is in Jesus Christ from which fulness his people receive grace for grace and such blindness as this to be in men that profess Christianity it is very strange and argues great stupidity and folly or else if they did know it they had no heart to go to him they would not if they could get it otherwise well and good and bring oyl to him they had hope of acceptance but they would have none from him and this would argue a worse kind of blindness But of these things we will not spend our conjectures nor in such uncertainties Whatever the case is sure it is that they went not to him but to the creature for their oyl from the Sun to the beam from the fountain to the stream and so to the broken Cistern and is not this folly This then will teach us thus much That the Papists are as like these foolish Virgins as they can look poor creatures those merit-mongers and money-changers that fill the Temple of God do not some of them sell and others buy their pardons and indulgences do they not go to the Church-treasure of merit to make up what is wanting of their own and not to Jesus Christ in the hour of their necessity I know not what some of them may do and some others I believe may be wiser in this thing but surely many poor creatures are led away with this wicked error I cannot call it better Surely Brethren If any be the foolish Virgins to the life the Papists are some of them if they be true to their Principles 2. It may serve to reprove many among our selves that put off all the work which concerneth their souls live as if they cared not for God nor regarded him at all the people of God and Ministers of Christ are the object of their scorn or disregard they sleight them above others but when an hour of destruction cometh O then when they are ready to dye the Minister must be sent for and he must speak a word of comfort right or wrong they are ready to think I doubt that as much is in it as in a Popish Absolution according to their conceit then as if it were in their power or they were in Christ's stead to give them grace they hang much of their confidence upon
Table as his Spouse for ever as the poor man in the Parable his wife is compared to an Ewe Lamb which did lie in his bosome and eat and drink with him so shall the Saints surely because of this relation of theirs to the Lord Jesus Ah blessed are ye Believers ye that are ready for the appearing of the Lord Jesus Again Now the Saints are made ready for this glory now we are not able to bear it old Bottels will not hold this new Wine that he will drink with them in his Fathers Kingdom strong Duties were too strong for the Disciples then in their minority as I may say how much more the Duties of heaven everlasting Hallelujahs and admiring of God in Christ therefore they must be changed before they can be fit for that feast a little joy now would swallow us up so as to unfit us for any thing Alas the Apostle like a wise Nursing Father would not give strong meat to babes they could not bear it and so our Saviour when upon the earth they could not bear many things therefore he fed them with milk if you should give strong meats to children and wine what would sooner ruine them therefore saith the Apostle I speak the Wisdom of God in a Mâ—sterie among them that are perfect yet he had some things which he saw in his Vision that he could not or might not utter to them likely they could not bear them You see Israel could not indure to behold Moses face when it had but a beam of the divine glory within the cloud reflected upon him and the glory of the Angel astonished Iohn so eminent a man in saith and love and holiness therefore I say we shall then be fitted for this Communion the old Bottles be made new the capacities of soul inlarged the mouth opened wider then we can conceive and the body raised in power It must be an extraordinary stomack brethren that can continually sit at a Feast and dâ—gest it and never be satiated therefore it is that the Marriage feast the fulness of it is reserved for heaven and heaven is so compared in Scripture For the Uses of the Doctrine First then Behold what maner of love the Father hath loved us with that we should be made the Favorites a people so near to him that he will take any of us with him into the Marriage The Apostle admireth the condition of the Saints for what they have in hand already What manner of love is this that we should be called the Sons of God that is to say made such his Word is operative he cals things that were not as if they were but saith he this is not all it doth not yet appear what we shall be until Christ who is our life appear then shall we appear with him in glory the Saints in heaven though their apprehensions as well as the rest of their capacities shall be inlarged heightened perfected yet shall not be able to comprehend the depth of the river of pleasures at the right hand of God no more then a Vessel that is put into the Sea can comprehend the Ocean and therefore they shall admire it then the Lord Jesus shall come to be admired in all the Saints their fulness will be unspeakable greater then that of the Saints here though sometimes they are filled with Joy unspeakable and full of Glory yet alas in both conditions far short of comprehending it therefore we should admire it Such things as eye hath not seen nor ear heard nor can enter into the heart of man God hath prepared Do you not see how Haman glorieth in it though he had little cause if he knew all that he among all the Courtiers was invited to the feast of Wine to the Queen he accounted it an high favour a significative testimony of his especial love to him above others Ah brethren you that are Saints indeed let me speak to you all in the words of the Angel to Mary you are highly favoured of God you shall all be admitted to this Marriage Feast be thou as poor in outward condition as may be and as poor in Spirit as may be never so low in thine own thoughts thou shalt enter into this Marriage Feast thou thinkest with the poor Publican Thou art not worthy to come near the place where his honour dwels nor lift up thy eys towards heaven nor be reckoned among his people nor come to his Table here below Well be thou as vile as thou canst in thine own eys thou shalt enter with the Lord Jesus into the Marriage Feast if thou be ready for his coming O admire this Love the Lord help poor weak creatures unbelief in this point that they may admire it what will he admit such a one as I such a vile creature such a grieving creature to his holy Spirit yea such as he hath once pitched his heart upon to love them they shall enter with him into this feast Saith Mephihosheth What is thy servant thou shouldest look upon such a dead dog as I c. 2. If this be so that the state of Glory or Kingdom of glory into which the Saints enter with Christ is such a Marriage-feast it shall be an invitation then to poor sinners to this Feast this Marriage Wisdom hath builded her house hewn out seven Pillars killed her beast mingled her wine made it ready a cup of mixture that is to say a cup made ready and now sends forth her Maidens to cry turn in ye simple ones c. O that the uncircumsicion of our hearts that are the Messngers may not hinder but the Lord Jesus by us brethren doth invite you sinners to this feast he would fain have his Table full of guests how welcome would he make man woman and child if they would but come he would cast out none that cometh to him no no in any wise whatsoever as I have told you sometime from the Text. But for the better understanding of this Exhortation I will note two things and then a little further press it upon us First then That we do not invite you to this Feast this Marriage in heaven to enter in with Christ continuing such as you are in your blood and uncleanness but we do first invite you to come to Jesus Christ here on earth that so you may enter in with him into the Marriage your union with Christ and your communion with him must begin upon earth though it end in heaven and this communion here is two-fold though both spiritual it is internal and external internal a fellowship with the Father in the Son a fellowship with Christ in his death the power of it that we may dye to sin and be free from the condemnation God will not have this Marriage-Feast for his Son in heaven filled with Goal Birds condemned creatures such as have their bolts and fetters upon them the nastiness of the prison upon them
think it is for carnal end for your corn and wine and oyl that you howl upon your beds you little think when you pray and seek after God it is for ends meerly that you might spend these things upon your lusts that you may appear to be some body be esteemed among men be of esteem among the Saints Well Brethren carry it as covertly as you can so that your own souls are juggled into a delusion it may be yet be not deceived God is not mocked men are apt to be deceived and think that their secrets of sinning their bread eaten in secret their morsels under the tongue shall never be discovered but the Lord seeth all this he knoweth you throughly he searcheth the hearts and tryeth the reins of the sons of men Secondly because he knoweth you therefore he doth not know you he approveth not of you it may be men do approve of you your praise may be among the Churches among the Saints but yet your praise may not be of God he loveth you not savours you not with that favour that he bears to his people indeed some love Jesus Christ had to the young man in the Gospel that was but near to the Kingdom of God he doth not disallow of a form and profession it hath its use the leaves of the trees of righteousness they may be for healing to others an holy profession and walking to the appearance of others may win others to Christ and yet a man may perish when all is done and a profession may serve as a Motive to quicken up themselves to look to the power if the power of godliness be not good and necessary why do men take up a form and if it be good why rest they in a form and neglect it but if there be no more he will not know such a man he doth not know him Thirdly What ever you dream of now he will pronounce that sentence upon you at that day O that dreadful sentence that he knoweth you not he never knew you Ah dear friends if the Lord would but single out any one of us and tell us we are the men what agonies would it put us into Ah Brethren this will make sinners ears tingle to hear this word from the Lord Jesus O let fearfulness surprize the hypocrites yea I tell you this will make your hearts to bleed and your heart-strings crack within you this will pierce you through with the sorrows of hell Ah dear friends if the voice of his Messengers discoursing of righteousness temperance and Judgement to come be so great as to make a Foelix a great man a stout hearted sinner tremble that was not converted O what will it be when the sentence is pronounced against them from the Lord himself for while you hear Preachers though it be terrible when the conscience is opened yet there is a Cordial at hand but when once pronounced by the Lord Jesus there is no more remedy if one word from the Lord Jesus when the Souldiers came upon him and he asked them whom they sought I am he saith he this struck them to the ground souldiers in such Garrisons in Countries kept by the sword they were won by use to to be men of stoutest spirits that would dare sometimes the very Devil himself and yet one word from Jesus Christ's mouth struck them to the ground O Brethren surely this word of sentence will speak men not to the ground but to the lowermost pit It will speak them dumb forthwith that they have nothing to say for themselves It will speak them into confusion and amazement it will speak them into the flames of hell in a moment O this roaring of the Lyon of the tribe of Judah who may abide If the Law was so terrible in the giving what will it be in the execution You read how the Mountains shook Moses himself trembled but the sentence of the Law is nothing to the sentence of the Gospel as this condemnation of hypocrites will be it is to men that have in appearance owned Christ followed him done much in his name and yet he will profess he never knew them they pretended acquaintance with him now but he will never own them You then Brethren that have only a semblance of holiness you seem to have somewhat and have nothing then shall be taken from you that which you seemed to have then your vizard will be pluckt off you pretend to be friends of Christ and of his people to be his Father Brethren and Mother but now will he profess he knoweth you not you that preach in the name of Jesus Christ and do not preach for his name for his glory but for your own he will not own you he will say to you he knoweth you not you rest in this your form this you are ready to plead and not stay your selves upon him he will not know you O but we do lean upon the Lord so you say but mark that of the Prophet you lean upon the Lord and say the Lord is among us and yet they build up Sion with blood and Jerusalem with iniquity the heads thereof judge for reward and the Priests teach for hire that is to say their tongues may be hired to say any thing pass any judgement right or wrong and yet lean upon the Lord say you lean upon the Lord and yet will be drunk swear lye cheat over-reach be filthy and unclean allow your â—elves in c 〈…〉 mplative wickedness be sure the Lord will not know such You that regard any iniquity never so little never so secret in your hearts believe it the Lord will not own you he will not know you he will not here own you much less will he when it cometh â—o the judgement It may be thou mayest soar a higher pitch in respect of parts and gifts and confidence and pretend to live higher then other men as many men of higher dispensations they say now do but yet as the Eagle when at the highest pitch hath a learing eye after her prey below so have they such a learing eye a lingering heart after their iniquity and their mouths water at it but for shame O surely Jesus Christ will never own such fear and tremble at this word as many as it concerneth O how will such souls be filled with amazement when they made no other reckoning but to come to heaven if any men in the Countrey should be saved a man would have thought they should have been the men they have done much suffered much wrought wonders c. and yet when all comes to all the heart was never right with God and therefore the heart-searching Judge will never own them never care for them become of them what will he will never know their souls Secondly then it may be for a searching word to poor creatures O be not deceived God is not mocked he knoweth a Balaam to be a Balaam
refuse it the desire accomplished is a tree of life as hope deferred is a sickness of heart but now where a man could scarce act hope as it is the case of some poor creatures O when the Lord shall against their hope own them and that to eternity it will be unspeakably sweet this will fill them with fulness of joy and glory for evermore But so much for this Time and Text. FINIS CHRIST the Sun of Righteousness hath healing in his wings for sinners MAL. 4. 2. But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings and ye shall go forth and grow up as Calves of the stall MAlachy is the proper name of this Prophet it signifieth an Angel or Messenger only with the addition of ' as is usual when common names are made proper He is not so called as if he were an Angel incarnate as some have imagined nor yeâ— as if he had his revelation by Angels But haply the name might be put on him without 〈…〉 foreknowledge of what the Lord would call him unto haply 〈…〉 Prophetical Spirit it might appear that God would make h 〈…〉 Messenger But however such an one â—e was and 〈…〉 mporarie with Nehemiah because he exhor 〈…〉 to the building of the Temple as Haggai and 〈…〉 those corruptions among the Jews 〈…〉 the last sheweth to have been among 〈…〉 over the Jews as marriage with 〈…〉 ng the tythes Chap. 3. 8. Depravation of Divine worship Chap. 1. 13. and 2. 8. And that this is the last of the Prophets they themselves acknowledge therefore he admonisheth them that they should take heed to the Law of Moses keep that they might expect no more Prophets until the great Prophet the Lord Jesus come and John his fore-runner God did in Babylon cause Visions to perish from among them in anger There is none to tell when this calamity shall end said they in the Psalmist and now again he causeth it to cease from them that their expectations of the Messiah that great Prophet and of Elias his fore-runner might be raised and that by the want of Prophecy they might be the more ready to receive Christ that great Prophet and to praise him when he should be revealed the Law and Prophets Prophecy until John Zech. and Elizab. and Simeon and the Baptist were so immediately before him that they rather shewed him pointed at him come than prophesied of his coming After he had reproved those corruptions among them as you hear he threatneth spiritual Judgements on them he tells them their expectations would be frustrated they looked for the day of the Lord as if that would heal all their troubles No saith the Prophet it shall be such a day as you dream not of they looked for peace but behold trouble for light but behold darkness they looked for a day of shadowing from the displeasure of the Lord but behold saith he the day of the Lord shall burn like an Oven What day this is is very much questioned some would have it to be the day of the last Judgement only and suitably they understand the rising of the Sun of righteousness to be his last appearing that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 illustrious appearing But this seemeth not to be the All if it be intended here but this seemeth not to be a time for growing up as Calves now is the time of perfection in glory Nor yet secondly do I take it only of the day of their calamiâ—y when they suffered so much under the Grecians Kings of Syria and Egypt the Seleucidae and Lagidae the two leggs of that Image in Dan. as some understand it though this also might partly be meant But this day I understand to be the time of Christ's appearing and manifestation to Israel which to some would be a day of grace and rejoycing indeed to others a day of gloomyness according to that in this third Chapter The Angel of the Covenant shall suddenly come into the Temple but who may abide the day of his coming and who shall stand when he appeareth for he is like the Refiners fire and like Fullers Soap And alas the most of them would be found but dross and stubble which must be purged away they could not abide the fire So when they rejected the Lord Jesus how fearful a day came on them who could abide it At the destruction of Jerusalem 1100000. slain beside near 100000. taken captive This day burned like an Oven O! a devouring fire it was so fearful a thing it s to have a day of grace a day of Christ come on a people and yet they sleight it and reject it Greatest love rejected turns into greatest displeasure flaming love into flaming wrath heat of affection into a burning of an oven a furnace Hear and tremble Brethren at this we who now have a day of Christ and a day of grace lest we find it in the end such a day as this so terrible to us But now lest those mourners in Zion that did wait for the consolation of Israel did fear the name of the Lord were tender and did tremble at this his word should be discouraged he opens here a creek to let them in to hide themselves provideth a shadow a skreen to set between them and this consuming fire in the words of my Text But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness saith the Lord arise with healing in his wings Ye that tremble at my word shall not be scorched nor this smell of the fire pass on you as it was with the three children The day of the Lord shall be a wounding to others but it shall be a healing to you they shall be cast into a burning oven as stubble or hay but ye shall go forth and grow up as calves of the stall So that the words are nothing else as I conceive but a Covenant of grace tempered into a cordial for poor drooping Spirits which might now be ready to faint to hear how terrible a day this day of the Lord would be which they had expected promising themselves so much happiness in it and their expectations should not be frustrated he would not make them ashamed of their hope But unto you that fear my name c. Here is Christ promised who is the Covenant the substance of it the mediator the surety of it and with him all things else Synâ—â—hdochi understood in these few things here implyed and expressed as light and healing and liberty and growth going on from strength to strength growing fat and flourishing prosperping into a Kingdom yea an everlasting Kingdom The Text then you see being the summ of the Covenant of grace must needs be a bundle of promises made to such as fear the Lord. I may not stand to open each of them until I come to speak particularly to them lest I hold you too long in the porch and we not be able to view any
and feathers compass clothe and adorn the fowl whose wings they are so the rayes do clothe and compass and adorn the Sun as it were how naked would a bird be without his feathers and how naked would the Sun be without his raies and beams Secondly because of the swift motion of the Sun not only in his diurnal course as in Psalm 19. He rejoyceth as a Gyant to run his race but no sooner is the Sun up but he doth in a manner spread his raies to all the Hemisphere as a bird quickly when she riseth spreadeth her wings abroad and therefore the Egypitans Hieroglyph of the Sun was a fowl spreading long wings every way Thirdly because the wings of a fowl are those under which she gathereth her young cherisheth them refresheth warmeth them that they may grow and increase So here the wings of the Sun are those whereby the creatures in their kind are healed and cherished as you know how the body will be benummed and languish with the cold of the night when the Sun beams come to beat on it again how doth it quicken and revive But now for the wings of the Lord Jesus what are his wings as he is the Sun of righteousness whatever answers to this Sun-beams are his wings and what are these In a word then I take them to be the Word and Spirit especially not excluding other Ordinances of Jesus Christ but these especially yea truly the Spirit in the Word and in other Ordinances of Christ I take to be these wings here spoken of The Spirit in the Word even whereby he cometh and preacheth to men even to them that were asar off from Christ is said to come and preach peace by which also saith the Apostle that is by the Spirit he went and preached to the Spirits in prison that now are in prison but not when he sent to preach to them the Spirit of Christ in the Word which Noah preached to them who was a Preacher of righteousness the Lord Jesus went and preached to them I say these are the wings of our Sun of righteousness and so they are called haply for divers reasons First that these proceeding from him even as the raies of the Sun which are his wings proceed from the Sun as the Sun sends forth his beams and influences in a powerful manner so Christ sends forth his light and his truth the Spirit as a person in the Trinity proceedeth from him as from the Father but as to his office to be an enlightening Spirit a quickning Spirit a comforting Spirit so he proceedeth from Christ I will send you the Comforter from the Father he poured out of his Spirit on his Apostles and many others who were to go forth in his name and preach the Gospel to the Nations and the Word he sends it forth out of his mouth proceedeth a two-edged sword which is his Word Secondly as the beams supply the absence of the Sun so doth the Spirit of Christ supply his absence therefore while he was yet present the Spirit was not yet given not poured out in that fulness but when he was to go he comforts his Disciples with this that if he went he would send them the Comforter another Comforter himself was one and he would send them another and that was his Spirit and he should lead them into all truth bring all things to their remembrance and be their Comforter and help their infirmities and so supply the absence of Christ Yea better then if he himself were with them as we use to say the Sun is come into such an house when the beams thereof are come in which do supply the absence of the Sun and better it is for us to have the beams then the Sun in our houses Thirdly because of the swiftness of the opening of the glory of Christ to the last ages of the world O! how swift are the beams of the Sun in a moment darted from heaven to earth and over-spread the whole Horizon So the Lord his Word being quickned by the Spirit doth run very swiftly as the Psalmist hath it in how short a time as the age of the Apostles did it overspread the Horizon gotten as far as Rome and how mightily did it prevail though the Jews did contradict and blaspheme and endeavour to take off the wheels of his Chariots yet it went on never the slower for that it grew and multiplyed Converts unto the face of the Church were as thick as the morning dew on the face of the earth which is generated by the Sun Fourthly as the beams of the Sun carry light and heat and refreshing along with them to the poor languishing earth and other creatures so doth the Spirit and the Word and the Spirit in the Word carries light with it thy Word is a light to my feet and indeed it is not Christ considered alone but as he is held out in the Gospel that is here resembled to the Sun of righteousness as I told you before their sound is gone forth into all the earth that is of them that preached the Gospel of peace and reconciliation through Christ And for heat O! how doth many a poor creature come under an Ordinance with an heartless mind cold and dead and his heart doth burn within him while the Lord by his Spirit hath communion with him in those Ordinances and what refreshings do arise to a poor weary soul when the Lord createth the fruit of the lips peace peace certain undoubted peace he doubleth it for emphasis that peace which passeth understanding and it shall surely be so and suddenly too not long he delights not to hold poor souls in anxiety trouble only what he seeth needful for their humiliation fetching them off themselves and sin and making Christ sweet to them indeed that he may be precious to them Other reasons might haply be given why the Spirit and Word and Ordinances are compared to the Sun which are the wings thereof but this shall suffice The fifth thing what is meant by healing and indeed this is large and as large as our spiritual maladies are some say there is nothing more wholsom then the Sun where it cometh with its beams how doth it purge the air wherein we breath consuming the noysom vapours that arise and would infect it quickly purging the earth from its dregs or else we should quickly find the offensiveness of it So the Lord Jesus by the breaking forth of his Spirit in the Word of Truth doth heal the air consume and scatter the venomous errors of men wherewith we should quickly be all poysoned were it not for this that be makes manifest their folly to all men and they proceed no further He heals the waters the waters of the Sanctuary how often have they been polluted yea poysoned by some and the Lord hath healed them again by his Spirit Again he heals the earth of its barrenness
in Winter the earth seemeth to be languishing and all things withered and dead when the Sun returneth how doth it heal it To it s here Beloved it is the Word and Spirit that opens the earth moistens the earth sweetly refresheth it calls forth the fruits thereof The fruits of the Spirit they are called as the fruits of the earth are called the precious fruits put forth by the Sun and by the Moon which shines by a derived influence from the Sun how precious are the fruits of the Spirit Brethren love meekness joy in the Holy-Ghost humility self-denyal these are the precious fruits put forth by the Sun the Lord Jesus by his Word and Spirit beating upon our barren hearts indeed he maketh the barren Wilderness to become a garden of God Again he healeth he reviveth the spirits which languish and are ready to go out as the poor Birds that in the Winter are hard put to it and some lye you hardly know where as if they were dead or dying when the Sun returneth how doth it refresh and revive their little spirits that were left before The night brings a heaviness and burthen along with it to the body but the morning when the Sun ariseth how doth it enliven and lighten Oh! so it s in this case many a poor soul can say by experience that when darkness hath been long on them they have no light no comfort no refreshing no breathing of the Spirit to their apprehensions in his Ordinances on their hearts O how have hands hanged down and their knees feeble and knock one against another for feebleness and that which was within them was ready to dye But now no sooner hath the Lord Jesus the Sun of righteousness looked on them but they have had their ankle-bones strengthened the joy of the Lord is their strength as Neh. 8. but I intend not here much to expatiate only these two or three things First then the first thing in this healing which is brought under the wings of the Sun of righteousness is pardon for our sins who forgiveth all-thy iniquities and healeth all-thy diseases these are exegetical one of another or may so be looked on Sin Brethren cuts off a creature from God and so maketh a wound which now is healed and made up when they are pardoned Make the heart of this people fat and let their ears be heavy their eyes closed lest at any time they should see with their eyes or hear with their ears or understand with their hearts lest they should be converted and I should heal them which Mark reads thus lest they should be converted and their sins be forgiven them So then forgiveness and healing are all one and its one thing surely included in that of the Prophet Hosea I will heal their back-slidings I will love them freely the justification freely by his grace as the Apostle calls it Poor sinner thou that ever knewest what sin was what a wound it was to thy soul knewest that thy pardon is a healing to thee So then this arising with healing in his wings is by his Spirit in his Word he conveyeth the blood of Jesus Christ the merit thereof maketh it over to the poor soul that believeth to the doing away of all the guilt So as a Sun of righteousness properly he healeth and this is the first Secondly He taketh away also the anguish and trouble that did arise from sin to the soul as when a wound is healed you know the anguish and smart is taken away though while it is healing it may be when searched and tented there will be smart and sore yet afterward it s taken away by degrees I know some of you have felt and haply some at present may feel the grief of your wounds O! how they will throb and beat and burn and smart sometimes broken bones are nothing to a broken heart nor the broken flesh any thing to a broken bone the Lord heals the broken in heart he bindeth up their wounds I have seen his waies and will heal him saith the Lord he speaks to the condition of a poor disconsolate soul under the wrath of God He was wrath and smote him yea he hid him and was wrath O how this troubles a poor soul he cannot but have his heart full of darkness and terrour and trouble that hath the face of God hidden from him well saith the Lord though he did walk frowardly before me gave me not my ends in smiting him yet I will heal him and wherein doth this healing consist Alas in restoring joy and comfort to him the poor soul now was over-whelmed with sorrow his heart now was ready to sink and fail within him and lest it should so do he will heal him and how is this but by his Word and Spirit therein which is the comforting Spitit he will create the fruit of the lips peace peace to him Here is a healing indeed the healing of broken hearts and broken bones it s the work that the Father sent the Lord Jesus for into the world in an especial manner that he annointed him for poured out the Spirit upon him annointed him with the oyl of gladness above his fellows that he might speak in due season that he might bind up the broken spirits Now the Lord Jesus Brethren our dear Saviour he delighteth to do this will and work of his Father O! he loveth to be doing with broken hearts And O that we had some work for the Lord Jesus this day he is among us now to see if there be any heart in this condition that he may heal us it s his delight to do it Well this is a second he hath his cordials as well as his purgatives his lenitives as well as his corrosives Thirdly he cometh with healing under his wings as to take away the anguish so also to purge away the filth of it to heal the running putrifying sore that it may not run and defile and pollute all that a man taketh in hand How much more saith the Apostle shall the blood of Christ purge our consciences from dead works that we may serve the living God With corrosives he eats down the proud flesh and the dead flesh he dryeth up the bloody issues then the person was healed when she touched Christ but the hem of his garment This is that which troubles many a heart more then the guilt of their sins and indeed the returning and recoyling of sin on them again and again occasioneth the questioning of their peace and comfort that they have had O how one cryeth out of this sin and another of that sin and walks heavily and sadly Well the Lord Jesus he will arise with healing under his wings for all these distempers Fourthly and lastly another healing is the taking away his anger manifested in outward calamities or diseases in a people or person I will heal their back-slidings and love them freely for mine anger is
turned away either to turn away the affliction or at least the anger which is the sting the inflamation of any affliction whatsoever if it be but an itch a scab if it be fired with the anger of God it shall be enough to consume and destroy the Lord challengeth it as a priviledge See now that I even I am he and there is no God with me I kill and I make alive I wound and I heal I wound their comforts wound their peace lay them a gasping a dying art thou not he that kelled'st Rah and wounded the Dragon So Job he maketh sore and bindeth up he woundeth and his hands make whole Come say they let us return to the Lord for he hath torn and he will heal us he hath smitten and he will bind us up after two daies will he revive us and the third day we shall live in his sight Healing upon the returning of poor sinners is a choice mercy indeed and all from him their returning in order to healing and the healing unto returning Behold I will bring it health and cure I will cure them and return to them abundance of peace after be had threatened to destroy them in his anger by the Caldeans So then it may be Beloved that the trouble of spirit thou hast had for sin God hath laid his hand on thy family on thy person and all little enough to bring down the pride of thy heart and to take away the iniquity of thy covetousness and wean thee from the creature Well he will return if thou return to him he will return he will heal thee or at least take away the anger that inflameth the Visitation which is a kind of healing Brethren though we are kept under it But thus much for these particulars touching healing You see then what it is that is held forth in this Doctrine That Jesus Christ will arise unto them that fear his name with healing under his wings that is to say by his Word and Spirit and other Ordinances conveigh to them pardon and cleansing and peace and comfort and freedom from calamities or the evil of them and I hope it is sufficiently proved by the several particulars there have been many Scriptures produced to prove it in each particular therefore we will not any longer insist on that part but come to the Application which will be divers First we may take notice Brethren hence what a comprehensive evil sin is for if we speak of healing which is the main thing in this Doctrine it must needs lead us being a relative to some distemper or other that is to be healed whether it be a disease or whether it be a wound or both for diseases many times are caused by wounds that its a disease a wound might easily be proved in the first place as by that of the Prophet The whole head is sick and the whole heart faint from the Crown of the head to the sole of the foot nothing but wounds and bruises and putrifying sores O! how loathsom are these sores do we not read of the plague of the heart a hard heart the stone in the heart in that place of Ezekiel where he speaks of his people under the notion of a flock to be fed and guided the diseased have ye not strengthened neither have ye healed that which was sick neither have you bound up that which was brokon diseased and sick I might here by an enumeration of particulars shew that every sin almost according to Scripture analogy is a disease To begin with the head Brethren is not blindness a disease and is not ignorance a blindness of the mind whereby we are alienated from the life of God Dear friends consider it how many among us poor creatures are groping at noon-day the light that is in them is darkness and O how great is that darkness and is there not also a self-conceipt and pride whereby we think of our selves above what we ought and from hence it is that we grow more in the head than in other parts a dangerous disease there is much knowledge among many of us but little heat little warmth on the heart little holy walking according unto it Obstructions between the head and the heart is none of the least diseases among us Is there not corruption of Judgement and is it not a dangerous disease if we had never thought so before our times would have taught us this the leprosie in the head a man of unsound principles is leprous and one of the worst kinds also O what a vertigo hath taken many they run round until they be giddy and fall and break themselves Beloved there are strong carnal reasonings in our heads whereby almost we will make any thing good that we would have forward we shall make it seem reasonable that we may cum rations insanire Go from the head to the heart and see is there not a stone there and that is none of the least diseases is there not a plague there O what hardness of heart and what stubborness and what frowardness of heart there is we might instance in many Brethren are there not eyes full of adultry like fleams grown over them which do blind are there not pearls in the eyes when the world is dear to us what is our covetousness else and what is envy but a blood-shotten eye which proceedeth from a heart full of vexing and is not lust a feavour yea an ulcer on the liver or a dart thrust through it and what is rotten communication which men make no more of and vain and foolish discoursing but the rottenness of a grave but the rottenness of lungs breathing forth continually O how some mens tongues are set on fire of hell can utter nothing but blasphemies and oaths at every word But we might be endless if we should go to particulars How many of us have a dead palsie past feeling commit all uncleanness with greediness saith the Apostle Sinners you little think what you are doing while you are going on in a way of sin as alas are not many of you this day in this condition you are either contracting or strengthening the diseases of your souls making fresh wounds in your consciences Ah! how lamentable were his condition that were wounded head and heart full of sores putrifying that the very sight of him and savour of his wounds were enough to make all others ubhor him yea he is so far from seeking remedy he wounds himself more and more maketh them deeper and deeper increaseth his diseases he careth not how much he inflameth them this is the condition of every poor sinner you see O! what sad creatures are we that have so many sicknesses on us and each of them deadly and how much more many then together and if we feel nothing at all he that is in the most deadly palsie or lethargie feels nothing at all would be let alone cannot endure to
so many years and yet not healed have you so often received the Lord his Supper the outward part of it and yet are not healed what have you been praying and reading and coming to hear until you have one foot in the grave and yet not healed what have you been doing all this while that you have never got a sight of Christ a touch of him to this day that you might be healed Ah sure you have spent your time your money upon the Physitians that cannot heal you you have gone to the Disciples in stead of Christ you have expected healing from the Ordinances themselves and expected it haply from us in whom healing is not as they lookt upon the Apostles Why look ye upon us as if we had done this by our own power O no it is Jesus Christ alone can heal and therefore if you are not yet healed he did never arise upon you to this day It may be sinners will be ready to say what if Jesus Christ hath never risen upon us is that such a great matter Indeed I doubt we make a light matter of it but I will tell you what a great matter it is you are yet in your sins and it is a very great hazard but you may die in your sins if he never rise upon thee thou shalt undoubtedly die in them and is this nothing O but you will say God is merciful it is his nature to be merciful he triumpheth in exalting that perfection and making it glorious It is true brethren but it is in Christ all light and healing is from the Father but he hath filled the Son now with inlightning and healing influence so that they who will have it must have it from the Son he hath all power committed to him all the medecines are his now and the power of applying them is so that he heals whom he pleaseth therefore dream not of it you that are wicked transgressors that have not your sins healed that God will be merciful to any but in Christ O but we may have our sins healed though it be not yet It is true thou maist be healed and this is somewhat but consider what a cold comfort this would be to a man that had the plague seised upon him in a violent manner why faith he it may be healled and yet alas be never looks after the Physitian nor â—â—e Physitian after him but groweth worse and worse and yet he may be healed It is true if the Lord do not cut thee off before thou maist be healed or if God swear not in his wrath thou shalt never enter into his rest or say to thee thou shalt never be healed O these secret things belong not to us the Father hath put them in his own power and we presume upon our courses of sinning as if we knew them were privy to them and knew certainly that we should have a day of grace an hour of mercy this is desperate if thou die in this condition with all thy running sores upon thee from head to foot no sound part but loathsome wretches what do you think the Lord Jesus will put such into his bosome Well consider this for the fourth Application of the Doctrine Such as are not healed of their lusts they have never had Jesus Christ arising upon them as yet they never knew Christ to this day let our knowledge be what it will our parts be what it will our seeming following Christ be what it will and thronging upon him never so much we never yet touched him he never yet shined upon our souls O how many such poor Christless souls hear this Word this day 5. Then let us labour to raise our spirits in admiration of the riches of grace in Jesus Christ given to poor sinners to provide a healing for us that when we had faln from the height of mercy or rather grace and goodness and so had all to be broken and bruised our selves broken our bâ—nes that he should provide a healing for us when we could never think of such a mercy what were we more to him then Angels if he had let us all lye under our broken bones under the wounds we had made in our selves and diseases we had contracted who could have had any thing to say against him for it this the Apostle maketh an argument of his love and it is doubtless a heightening of it to consider how free it is that their wounds should not be cured and ours healed when both alike curable to him and considering that they might have been much more serviceable to him then we being creatures of a more glorious active nature then we are yet he took not hold of the nature of Angels But consider we first the infinite disproportion between the Physitian and the Patients were it not wonderful condescention for a K 〈…〉 o come off his Throne to buckle himself about the business 〈…〉 eal a worm that hath been trodden upon O it pittieth him to see them bleeding and therefore he maketh it his business to cure them brethren you would think this strange but this is the case yea this is but a shadow Iacob is but a worm and that the Lord of Lords the King of Kings should descend from his Throne from heaven disrobe himself as I may say put on rags and all to have to do with the wounds and diseases of poor sinful dust and ashes worms and no me 〈…〉 Brethren my tongue is not able to express it we would thin 〈…〉 a great matter such of us as live in the highest honour wear soft raiment are delicate in all things to take up a poor creature in the streets that is full of sores cast out to the loathing of his person to search the wounds have to do with those loathsome sores O what love were this it may be we could be content in pitty to give money for others to do it but to do it with our own hands there is the trial and yet this creature is of our own kind but what are we to the Lord or to his Christ who would do this for a Dog for a Viper a Serpent a Toad if wounded if sick and diseased can we conceive what tenderness it must be above what we have it may be we would not kill or destroy such a creature but if otherwise hurt would we heal them O herein is the love of God to poor sinners high above our thoughts as heaven is high above the earth alas we are more ready to tread upon Serpents and Dogs we would cast them out put them away from us it is but a dog Ah dear friends what are we that are strangers from the Covenant of Promise as we are all until he entereth into a Covenant with us we are as dogs as he speaks to the Syraphinitian woman all such unclean creatures yea we are a generation of Vipers as full of venom of sin as a Toad is full of poyson and
sins pardoned and healed were back-slidings only thou must be content to endure something for the healing of those fearful wounds thou hast made in upon thy soul for there is no wound cured in a moment nor without any anguish and all that he laies upon thee is nothing the smart is nothing though the plaister lie long upon thee before it be healed to draw the sore to a head to break it to draw it to heal it there will be some time but he will heal thee poor sinner if he have made thee weary of this sin desirous of healing indeed And for you that are crying out of broken bones it may be there are some whose condition this is that do fear the Lord and obey the voice of his servants it is the greatest fear of thy soul to displease the Lord to grieve him happy soul with whom it is thus but thou art over-cast thou art clouded thou seest no light thy bones are broken thy spirit is wounded O who can bear a wounded spirit Be of good chear man remember this hath he not promised it that he will arise upon them that fear the Lord with healing in his wings he will heal those broken bones and the flesh wherein there is no soundness by reason of thy sins he will heal it and he is doing of it though thou art not sensible of it he pittyeth thee and knoweth how to pitty thee for himself was ecclipsed though the Son of righteousness that he might know how to pitty them that suffer in the like kind for the time to come he knoweth thy frame what thou canst bear and he will not let thee sink O thou of little faithâ— though he may fright thee as he did his Disciples the cloud will be over again only thou must wait for him he knoweth what it is to be without the light of his Fathers countenance as well as thou and he knoweth what thou canst bear therefore be not discouraged man and beside thou hast his promise for it only look to it that thou fear him that thou put not forth thy hand to iniquity that thou say not with that wicked King Why should I wait for the Lord any longer he that shall come will come in the best season When the mercy will be most sweet and seasonable himself may have most glory by it and thy soul most refreshing O but saith another I am not healed I doubt then for alas I find though haply I break not out as before to uncleanness actually yet I have eyes full of adultery still I find the dispositions and inclinations and yieldings of my heart strong to mine own iniquity still some to one and some to another â—or answer to this Is this thy burthen thy grief that it is so dost thou loath thy â—elf for it dost thou hate it wouldst thou fain have it rooted up thou art healed in the greatest part there is the core fetched up from the bottom though the wound be not altogether healed up it is the work of longer time then haply God hath been dealing with thy soul but be of good chear man lay thy self under the Sun of righteousness labour to improve the Covenant of grace wherein he shines most gloriously he hath promised he will circumcise thine heart and thou shalt be able to love the Lord with all thine heart and that he will subdue all iniquity for thee and see if he be not as good as his word in his own time which is the best time We have already endeavoured to open the main promise in this bundle and apply it with what advantage the Lord and your own hearts can tell you have heard at large that Jesus Christ is a Sun of righteousness and that he will ariâ—e with healing in his wings upon them that fear him So that there is Christ promised light and heat and healing reviving and quickning promised and through him And now we are come to speak to the liberty which is promised with Christ which is none of the least considerable Appendices of our justification through his blood and though you have not long since heard somewhat upon this subject however if you hear but the same things the Spirit of the Lord may breath where and when it pleaseth we may meet with him sometimes in hearing the same things that at another time he hath not been found in And ye shall go forth This is principally as I told you spoken to the Jew to the Jew first but also to the Gentile as all the Gospel promises they were first preached to the children of the Kingdom when the Gentiles were strangers from the Covenant of promises but now the Lord hath made them nigh in the blood of his Son that were afar off in Christ all the promises are Yea and Amen to them as well as to the Jews I told you at the first that we are not to confine promises made to times and persons except by unavoidable neceâ—sity where the matter promised is such and the promise such as can agree to no other time or person no persons or peoples condition can become like to theirs to whom the promise is made or are not capable of the thing promised as the promise of the Messiah to come of David and that in Abrahams seed all the Nations of the earth should be blessed c. therefore this is a promise concerning all the people of God as their conditions become alike yea all that fear the Lord in any of these senses we have already spoken to By going forth here some understand a going forth of this life or a going out of the grave which is a prison indeed to some though not properly so to the Saints but a place of repose until the appearing of Jesus Christ So Alap citing Tert. and Jer. the reason is because they took that which is spoken of the day of the Lord in the foregoing verse of the day of Judgement That day which should burn as an Oven but I do rather conceive that it is not meant of the day of the last Judgement but the day of the fearfull desolations of Jerusalem out of which yet the Lord did deliver and save his own people and the rather I conceive so because of the growing up like Calves of the Stall promised afterward now if that be the day there is no room then to grow any higher to spread any further but as the tree is cut down so it lies there is then in the words a promise of an inlargement from under restraint wherewith their spirits were bound up as I may say and were imprisoned and this we shall see I hope is very great only take here the note of observation from the words The Lord Jesus rising upon a soul brings inlargement to that soul or people ye shall go forth For the prosecution of this I shall propose this Method First give you the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the quod that it
not that sinners are blind-folded do you think they would be led by Satan into so many horrid things O if they had known they would not have crucified the Lord of glory Father forgive them they know not what they do Alas the Panther hideth his head when he allureth the beasts the sweetness of his smell or beauty of his skin only the Drag is said to flie from him Isid li. 12. 2. See Mead upon Revel p. 2. p. 52. Alas they see not the head which is ready to affright them and devour them and not only is it the ground of this bondage but of all the rest how cometh it to pass that poor souls are plunged into such desperate gulfs of despairing and such breaking bondage in that kind but because they are held in ignorance they do not come to know the Father and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent he keepeth them in ignorance of the promises the sweet and precious promises of Jesus Christ O dear friends it is impossible were it not for our ignorance of that love of God in Jesus Christ and that riches exceeding riches of grace that is in him and his thoughts that are above our thoughts that there should be so many cloudings such fearful plunges as many poor souls are put unto yea many times even after they are once delivered from them why now I say when the Lord Jesus cometh ariseth upon a soul as the Sun of righteousness he dispels this ignorance discovers sin in its own colours and indeed worse it cannot be set forth in therefore the Apostle saith that sin might appear to be sin and then he opens the treasuries of the Promises of the Covenant of Grace to let a poor sinner see there is enough for him there though his sins be great yet mercy is transcendantly greater if he have mountains to be covered the Lord hath a sea to swallow them up if multitudes of sin there is multitude of mercies there is love which will cover a multitude and so by discovering himself thus and our selves to our selves he by degrees setteth the creature at Liberty from those fearfull apprehensions of God and from that delight in sin which formerly he had taken so that now no longer will he serve it But a little more plainly take a Scripture or two for it in that of Isaiah To proclaim liberty to the captives the opening of the prison to them that are bound the opening of the prison some read it so and so do our Translators though it is acknowledged by the learned among us that the latter is no where else used in this sense for the prison nor for the prey as some others use it and therefore some do take the word to be but one and render it omâ—imâ—do apertionem so that the doubling of the Letters here are Emphatical and by way of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 though then Manaph here remaineth as a difficulty for words so doubled use not to be so joyned together so that some would have it here nothing else but a very large opening of their eyes and say that it is used most properly if not constantly of the opening of the eyes and surely this is the way of Gods delivering his Captives and agreeable to the text here the Sun arising in the morning opens the eyes setteth the senses at liberty from that prison of darkness they were in in the night and elsewhere it is manifest in that of Luke 4. 18. To preach deliverance to the captives and recovering of sight to the blinde and again the Psalmist The Lord looseth the Prisoners he openeth the eyes of the blinde therefore Paul was sent to open the eyes of the blinde and turn them from the power of Satan to God and from darkness to light for we must know that this bondage is of the soul the faculties thereof and chiefly the will Now the Lord when he cometh to deliver us dealeth with us as with men and therefore first opens the eyes of the mind and draweth us with the cords of a man with arguments over-powring our reason and then with the cords of love sweetly thereby inclining our hearts and bowing our wills and then the poor creature comeeth forth out of this bondage before we see we are in prison or see the loathsomness of it the darkness of it we are in love with it and will not go forth But Secondly This darkness comprehendeth another and that is Error or rather this ariseth from the other and therefore we shall speak to it apart Ye err not knowing the Scripture nor the power of God he saith not ye err not knowing immediate Revelations but not knowing the Scripture for there the light is in the Lanthorn if we will behold it now this error of what kind it will be it is a snare of the Devil and therefore it is a bondage The Apostle there speaks of Heretical Doctrine held by such as do perversly oppose themselves against the Ministers of Jesus Christ who hold out the truth as it is in Jesus He sheweth how Timothy is to carry himself to them in meekness instructing them that oppose themselves if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledgement of the truth Repentance is a turning from sin to God and to the contrary Grace or Vertue and that is the acknowledgement of the truth therefore their sin was some corruption of the truth and that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil who are taken captive by him at his will out of the snare of the devil a sad snare it is if the devil can but get so far within a man as to dazle his eyes to blinde them he may lead them whither he will if he can but corrupt their judgement especially in fundamentals or practicals then they are his own they are fast enough he carryeth them captive takes them alive even at his pleasure Now our liberty from this part of bondage also is by the arising of the Sun of righteousness upon us the Spirit maketh us free as he is a spirit leading his people into the truth not only the notion but the practise of it also we have an anointing whereby we know all things saith the Apostle speaking of Antichrist it is needleâ—s for me to speak to you of him you have an anointing will teach you to avoid thâ—se his errors O happy is that soul that hath such a Guide such a Leader to lead him forth out of prison even as the Angel went before Peter else between sleep and wake hope and fear he might haply have mist his way So the Lord Jesus cometh and giveth his Spirit and bids the soul go forth alas whether should they go they know not the way as Thomas said why saith he â—ollow me I will lead you as he in his word hath therein revealed himself and maketh it out by his Spirit to his
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
dost thou grow in that is thy communication much more seasoned and savoury is it all savoury tending to minister grace to the hearers heretofore thou hadst it may be scarce a thought of God in a day now he is the object of the workings of thy soul the thoughts of him are pleasant to thee this is an high condition it argues thou hast grown thou art in a growing condtition but this is not all Brethren Secondly Is that more fruit you bring forth better then it was before is it more mellow then formerly or if thou bring forth no more in number is it more in weight for God takes not our services by number but by weight and it is a sottishness of the poor blind Papists to think that God is pleased with their much speaking with pattering over so many Avy Maries and Pater Nosters or principles of the Doctrine of Christ I wish our practises be not too like theirs It may be heretofore thou couldest not enlarge thy self in prayer and now thou canst and thou thinkest thou art much grown it may be in bulk but not in goodness are thy prayers now more the breathings of the Spirit of Christ within thee and less of thine own Spirit O how much strange fire mingled with our sacrifices and strange incense strange zeal even our own passions instead of a zeal for God! Now Brethren is our zeal and fire more pure coming down from heaven even from the Spirit of Jesus Christ warming our hearts Look to this do we find that we grow more spiritual in duties in prayer do we act our faith more strongly wrestle with God in spirit more then in words children are apt to be taken with bables and pictures and flowers in the corn and we wâ—th sweet and quaint expressions but now have we learned to worship him more in spirit and in truth to know that the great work of our duties lie in the frame of our hearts toward God in prayer in preaching in hearing of the Word It is childishness Brethren for one never to be well or to place so much in it to be alway upon the lap and dandled do we find that now we would rather be made serviceable to him and do it with more pure hearts more pure ends not for our selves but for his glory we ask not gifts parts grace to spend it upon our lusts as heretofore not â—or our own peace that we might take our ends but that we might be fitter instruments in his hands for his glory not for our own praise and honour among men O look to this I tell you there is nothing sticks closer to us then this now doth this sowrness crabbidness of our fruits wear away by degrees is it better with us in these respects then before this is a sign of growth indeed I will add but one more and that shall be this Dost thou â—ind that thou growest by the opposition thou meetest with in the work of grace either from without or from within or any way whatsoever First I say from opposition without grace will grow and gather strength and this either from men or from the Lood from men when they oppose the way of God wherein we walk we must look to it that we grow so much the stronger for that is the nature of grace Brethren as when Paul preached the faith which once he had destroyed and the people were amazed saith the Text and they spake of him as a changling is not this he that wasted them that called upon his name in Jerusalem but Saul waxed so much the stronger and confounded the Jews that dwelled at Damaseus proving that this was the Christ As the fire they say is hotter by antiperistasis in coldest weather the Palm-trees they grow like as you heard in the proof that raiseth it self up under a weight of opposition Well look to this Brethren I do not mean an Ish 〈…〉 elitish spirit that is against every one and every mans hand against it and that a man should out of a cross crooked disposition do any thing or vex and gall persons that oppose them but grace will then be stirred up as the fire by the wind that bloweth it this way and that way it is in vain to blow it out to offer it for it increaseth the flame there is no resisting that Spirit whereby the Saints a 〈…〉 ted look to it is it thus with us or do we find that opposition from men doth cool us discourage us dishearten us so that we dare not own the Lord Jesus and his truth and way Truly it is to be feared it is not right with us Secondly From the Lord there is some opposition sometimes he wrestleth with us Jacobs wrestling with God implyeth some opposition of God as I may say he wrestled with him let me go saith he this stirreth him up so much the more earnestly to lay hold upon him when the Lord would take his leave of him and you see the poor man in the Gospel when he was rebuked for crying after Jesus Christ he cryed so much the more earnestly and so our Saviour when he was in that great agony or striving under the displeasure of his Father saith the Text he prayed so much the more earnestly So the Lord doth sometimes hang back or hide his face that he might draw out more and more his peoples hearts toward him as a Fisher draweth away his bait to make the fish follow it the more eagerly Well consider this now do we thus grow even by opposition if the Lord say to us we are dogs not fit for childrens bread can we conclude the worst against our selves and yet gather upon him for the crums at the least But then there is opposition from our selves from within and that is from the rebelling of our lusts they rise and swell and many times over-bear us we are foiled do we grow by this this may seem somewhat strange that the acting of sin should tend to the encreasing of grace for that we must know that it is not proper for every act of sin properly doth strengthen the habits of sin and the stronger sin is in the soul the weaker grace is like to be as the more the water cools the less heat there is remaining in it but it is by accident as water cast upon a coal-fire at present it seemeth to put it out but afterward it burns so much the hotter and fiercer So grace takes occasion hereby to stir up it self so much the more to set it self so much the more in opposition to it it maketh a child of God so much the more humble so much the more watchful and full of prayer if it be right with them and neither sin nor Satan gets by this at all So if Peter be tost in that sieve of vanity that temptation and fall O how it humbles him and how afterward it fetcheth him off his own bottom how valiant he
necessity and distress O be ye merciful as your heavenly Father is merciful take him for oâ—â— pattern and there will be continual room for growth and increase So the Apostle exhorts the Corinthians that as they abounded in other graces so they would labour to abound in this also Ah where are bowels Brethren towards one anothers souls with what tenderness did the Apostle stand over the souls of those poor people warning them day and night with tears And our Saviour over Jerusalem now I tell you again weeping saith the Apostle O that God would give such a heart to us and such a heart to his people indeed there is little tenderness and bowels one towards another little pittying one another while under temptation we can rather raise our hearts one against another stomack one another entertain prejudice one against another upon this account but a spirit of meekness and love and tenderness in restoring setting one another in joint if we be faln is not found among us or very little O labour to grow here and then to abound in works of mercy to give and give much liberally and do it with a tender heart an upright heart out of obedience to God not for ostentation But fifthly Labour to grow in softness of heart to see the stone wasting day by day I do not mean by softness of heart only an aptness to melt into tears for many an one may have a soft heart that cannot weep at all though most dispositions are apt to it and where it is it is a sweet expression of the heart towards Christ often-times though I must tell you there may be much of this and yet much hardness of heart many tears shed and it may be upon the consideration of sin and yet the heart hard to this day the softness of the heart Brethren lies most what in the plyableness and yielding of the spirit to God when we are ready to do all the will of God as David I have found David my servant one that will do all my will that is ready to say speak Lord for thy servant heareth Lord what wouldst thou have me to do Now alas there is many a wretched heart that it may be under a passion weeping at the apprehension of sin and yet go away and return to it again and again the heart is not plyable but stubborn wherein did lie the hardness of Pharaohs heart it lay in this that he would not harken to the Lord nor let Israel go though he had had so many judgements and so many deliverances yet all would not soften his heart no the iron sinews in his stiff neck they remained such still though sometimes he seemed to relent yet alas no sooner the hand was off but the heart was more hard then before he strouted it out and would not yield to let Israel go So when the Lord heapeth mercy upon mercy to melt out the sâ—one in the heart to make it like wax to the fire to the mould to be put into a fashion and it may be sometimes it draweth a few tears from the eyes but the heart is never the more plyable to God And so he cometh with rod upon rod blow after blow and yet doth it gently and all to foften and make the poor creature more plyable to him it affecteth a little sometimes but is not the heart as stubborn as unteachable as far from yielding to God in all things as before O this is the softness as a piece of joyners work it is all glued together one part to another Now then it is dissolved and broken when the glue the soder is melted and one piece falls from another so it is here our hearts and their sinful objects are glued together by carnal affections now then the heart is said to be broken to a softness when these affections are dissolved when our hearts and our objects of sin fall asunder each from the other labour to grow herein Brethren Sixthly To be more spiritual in holy duties more inward in our Communion with God you have heard this spoken to in the tryall O labour then to grow in spiritualness in prayer to pray with more faith with more fervency with more purity of heart not to ask any thing to spend it upon our lusts In meditation to keep closer to it without distraction and so to read to hear to do all these duties in a better manner but enough of this already Seventhly In your holy walking with God and with your selves as the Apostle saith we be seech you Brethren by the Lord Jesus that as you have received of us how ye ought to walk and please God so you abound more and more when a man walks with God alvvay setteth the Lord as before his face as the Psalmist speaks then he vvill be able to vvalk pleasingly to him vvhen by faith he seeth him that is invisible that is to say God to be present vvith him and knovveth him to ponder his vvaies O hovv eareful shall vve be then of our thoughts as vvell as of our vvords and actions and this vve do by faith believing his presence vvith us and his all-seeing eye to be upon us still upon our hearts and all their vvorkings according to the prevailing of these persvvasions and the constancy of them upon our spirits vvill our vvaies be ordered such a man vvill not dare to harbour vain thoughts in his heart though they vvill rudely rush in as a ruffian may rudely offer violence to a chast Matron she vvill not endure it so it is here O no I dare not as Joseph you see and then vvalking vvith our selves by more and more restection upon our selves upon our actions our waies the very truth is the want of this is the great cause we grow so little or if we do that we can take so little comfort in it herein lies the excellency and glory of a man above a beast that he can recoyl upon his own actions therefore labour to improve this O be more in it reproving your selves when you find you have done amiss whip those vain thoughts which pass through your souls and give them their Pass exhort your selves stir up your selves comfort and chear your selves in your God which you cannot do except you be much in this part of an holy walking even reflecting upon your selves and your own state Eighthly and lastly that I shall speak to shall be this To labour to grow more and more in that assurance of your relative grace your adoption the growth and other grace its true is a great help unto it but labour to improve it to that end how chearfully might many a poor soul walk if they did but know the things which are freely given them of God O beg the Spirit to be a witnessing a sealing-spirit to you more and more And do the same diligence saith the Apostle to the full assurance of hope unto the end we do content
have not heard saith the Apostle And Faith cometh by hearing and therefore it is called the word of Faith and therein the righteousness of God is revealed from Faith to Faith thereby wherein even in the Gospel preached of which the Apostle was not ashamed by the preaching thereof poor creatures were brought to believe in the Lord Jesus and so the righteousness of Christ was revealed therein to them and conveighed to them by Faith I know not what course the Lord holds with the Heathen to whom the Gospel is not preached by men like themselves nor hath the Lord given us a positive account of his dealing with them and therefore I meddle not with it but this is the ordinary way of Gods working of Faith in them who come to be capable of hearing the Word and understanding of it therefore usually if God intend to bring on such a soul or such a soul he will bring them under the Word either to dwell under it or the Word accidentally to be among them It is observable that in Pauls conversion only he himself heard the voice of him that talked with him not the men that were with him because God intended this vision for Paul and not for them they are said in another place to hear a voice but not the voice of God but the voice of Paul and wondered to hear him speak and heard no body speaking to him hearing then of God is hearing him speak in his Word for it is he that speaks therein Secondly By the hearing may also be understood yet further some whisperings and motions and secret workings of his Spirit which many a man hath many times in hearing of the Word the Spirit passeth by and breatheth in the Word upon one soul and upon another putting on the soul to fasten upon such a a truth or such a truth as sweet and precious inwardly speaking to their understandings that they are sure the men concerned in such a threatning in such a promise and this is a part of Gods striving by his Spirit with rebellious sinners that do not believe nor obey Now this is a more inward hearing then the former some sit under the same Sermon and the Sword of the Spirit maketh no more entrance upon them then upon a brazen wall and it must be a sharp sword indeed that must divide an heart of stone many a blow is laid at a sturdy Oak an old grown sinner before his heart beginneth so much as to shake and this is the second Thirdly Then for the learning which is the main thing which goeth before the coming to Jesus Christ this I take to to be when the Lord not only by his Messengers maketh his word plain before us lays it to our Consciences as the Ax to the root of the Tree but when he opens our understandings plucks open our eyes to behold the light teacheth us indeed he teacheth a poor soul in special these two or three things 1. That he is lost a son of perdition for ought he knoweth many a poor Creature in the Ship like Jonas though ready to sink he was asleep if the Ship had sunk it had been all one to him they come and awake him up thou sleeper dost thou not see thou art sinking thou art dying thou art perishing so the Spirit of the Lord Jesus takes a poor sleepy dead sinner by the understanding tels him thou art the man condemned wrath abideth upon thee particularly what dost thou mean wilt thou have the flames of hell about thy ears before thou wilt stir a foot what wilt thou bring the blood of Jesus upon thy head thus the Spirit cometh and shaketh a poor soul out of his sleep in sin he never dreamed what his condition was before this is the Spirits convincing a man of sin setteth his sins in order before him setteth a man upon the search into his condition then represents all his sins in their bloody guilt and condemning nature every one of them with a mouth like hell ready to swallow him up this is a part of the cords of a mans convictions 2. It teacheth him yet further now no longer to lie securely in that condition if he continue here he must perish therefore now he beginneth to look about him O what shall I do to whom shall I turn my self is there no hope of pardon no mercy for me O what shall we do said they in Acts 2. to be saved if the Ship be sinking now it is time to look about for a Plank a Mast something to lay hold upon something to stop the leak if now Brethren granadoes be cast into the soul and be broken and tearing all to pieces the very flames of hell have caught hold upon such a poor creature there is no delay now the Spirit of the Lord working with a mans natural principle for self-preservation puts him on to enquire for somewhat to quench it now he beginneth to cry out fire fire in his soul O he cannot hold it 3. It teacheth yet further and the poor soul learneth this also effectually that there is no help for him in the creature neither in himself nor in any other if he take the quintescence of all his works which we usually before have a high esteem of and temper them together alas they will not make a balsom for this wound now all the Spirits in all the Creatures in the world if they could be extracted I mean the comforts that might arise from the enjoyment of them would not keep the poor languishing soul from fainting and dying waters of the fullest cup let them overflow never so much if a man have rivers of pleasures in the enjoyment of creature-comforts honours relations parts learning gifts whatsoever they be alas the poor creature is now taught they will not quench this spark that is gotten into the conscience I mean they will not allay the trouble of his spirit will not heal the wounds of his spirit so that now he knoweth not what to do the Hart they say if smitten with an arrow goeth to her herb to cause the arrow to fall out and other creatures being poysoned stung sick distempered run to their cure by a natural instinct but now when God hath shot this arrow into a poor soul it wounds too deep sticks too fast for the teeth of any creature to pluck it out or for the vertue of any creature yea they are so far from healing that rather the consideration of them are as oyl to the flame to vex and wound so much the more well this is much to be taught he that learneth this effectually and not in the notion only goeth far there are many convinced of their wounds their bleeding dying condition but they imagine there is help to be had in something else they run to a duty of their own as if a day of fasting would make amends for all run to this or that unfaithful Shepherds that will
to chaâ—e it in our hearts 32 Oyl Motives to have it in our Vessels 115 Oyl of grace how to know we have it 118 Oyl in your vessels must surely be had in readiness 217 Oyl they that go to the Saints for it are like to have a denyal 302 P Papists reproved for taking upon them to sell grace 306 Papists are like to foolish Virgins 299 Parable what is it 1 People of God have slept 156 People of God that make profession of Jesus Christ an exhortation to them 232 People of God have considerations to stir them up to cut off all delayes 293 People of God that are guided by the Spirit it is a comfort to them 318 Perfection in this life there is not 192 Plots and Purposes how it comes to pass that many are taken away in the midst of them 213 Prayer we are to be much in it 253 Profession without the enjoyment of the Spirit is but folly 104 Professions all are full of folls 115 Professors formal what such are to know 265 Professors formal a startling word to them 280 Professors real to them a word of Exhortation 282 Professors trifling a warning word to them 316. Their doleful condition 371. See Saints Formalists Promises from them conclude that Christ will not put away any soul 84 Prophecyings they that despise them what to remember 24 Put away from Christ the souls objections answered 85 R Readiness labour to maintain it 337 Reaidness what is meant by it 326 Ready such as are when Christ cometh do enter with him into glory 325 Ready a child of God may be before he desire it and desire it before he be ready 329 330 Ready soul is in a blessed condition 332 Ready are we put this question 333 Ready to enter what need there is to look to it 372 With Directions what to do 373 374 Refuges how hard it is to beat a man off from them 319 Refuges what they should teach those that are brought off from them 321 Rejoyce in Christ the soul must 79 See willing Resurrection of the dead a Saint falls short of this though he have never so much grace here 311 S Saints seeming and real in what respect called and compared to Virgins 10 Saints real and formal the things that do distinguish them 14 Saints priviledges 60 Saints ought to communicate their experiences each to other 305 Saints may have a good esteem of hypocrites 229 Saint-ship what is requisite to it 89 Similitude is the mother of mistakes 271 Sins greatness wherein it lies 151 Sin how to know whether the conflict of it be right or no 238 Sinners hearts are full of self-confidence and presumption 383 Sleep what kind is it 145 Noted by two degrees ibid. Sleep the causes of it 147 Sleep of Formalists and Saints do differ 1â—7 Sleep considerations to stir us up out of it 163 Sleep they that are in it will find no ease 169 Sleep that we are kept from it considerations to heighten our praises 177 Sleep we are apt to be when most need to be awake 187 Sleep what it argues 192 Sleep is matter of deep humiliation ibid. Sleeping the sad effects of it is matter of mourning 155 Sleeping cautions against it 171 Sleepy the end why God leaves his people in such a frame 153 Slumbering and sleeping what is meant by it 12 145 Slumbering and sleeping the time considerable 143 Slumbering and sleeping incident to the best of Saints 144 Slumbering and sleeping argues an hour of need to watch in 196 Sorrow for sin how to know whether it be right or no 235 Souls dejected have arguments set before them to close with Christ 58 Soul of man hath two things in it considerable 106 Souls evil or loss 112 Souls doubting to them a word of encouragement 407 Spirit of Christ is the greatest woer 44 Spirit of grace there is need to keep in with him 195 Spirit must not be grieved when we have his presence 254 Spirits prophane reproved 135 T Teachers false and their waies are to be taken heed of 250 Teachers of God have a pattern set before them 24 Temptation hath an hour See Awaking Things the same inculcated upon Believers bespeaks somewhat more to be learned 28 Time is to be made good use of both by Saints and Sinners 139 140 Time unknown what is it put for 208 Truth for the abusing of it a word for conviction 130 Truths divine have cautions against the nauseating of them 27 V Vessel what is meant by it 15 Virgins why so called 10 Virgins foolish their request to the wise Virgins 262 286 Virgins wise their answer to the foolish Virgins 301 314. See Lamps Vnderstanding in man is very dull 20 Vnion between Christ and his people so sure that it cannot be shaken 87 Vnreadiness what is meant by it 365 Vnready two or three persons likely will be found 367 Vnregenerate estate See Members W Watch what is the end of such men as do or do not 18 Watch the reason wherefore 211 Watch to it men are perswaded 216 Willing to close They whom Christ hath made so should labour to make it sure 75 Wisdom wherein it lies 105 Wisdom for the compleating of it hath three things 106 Wisdom of a pretended and real Saint compared 108 Wisdom of a Saint and a fool wherein it appears 113 Withdrawing between Christ and us their difference 87 World See Church Workers of iniquity what is understood by that 398 Y Yield up themselves to Christ To such a word of comfort 86 The second Alphabetical Table containing the principal heads and matter in the foregoing Treatise of Christ the Sun of Righteousness hath healing in his wings A ACquaintance we gain with God by prayer 625 Afflictions outward from them there is freedom 505 From 1. The fear of them 2. The presence of them 3. The evil of them from 506 to 507 Arise when Christ doth upon a soul he brings enlargement to it 479 508 Arising of the Sun of righteousness on them what is meant by it 434 B Bondage the Authors of it 486 Bondage there is 1. By Captivity 487 2. By sale ibid. 3. By birth 489 4. By tenure and usurpation 490 Bondage to sin its consequences 492 Bondage the guilt of sin is a part of it 494 Bondage sinners that are in it exhorted to close with the promise of going forth 529 Bondage what God requires of them that are set free from it 536 Bondage unto men be not brought under 544 See Sin C Ceremonies of men from these there is freedom 508 Children are made free by grace not by natural generation 518 Children may be free in the account of the Church and yet be the servants of sin 520 Children of Believers can grow 581 Christ is to be valued by us 423 Christ of him there is great necessity 452 Christ is the only pipe through which grace is conveyed 568 Come to Christ considerations so to do 473 Communion of Saints in
drunk the cup of the Lord and it hath been a cup of deadly wine to thy soul thou hast eaten and drunken thy judgement and condemnation so often that thou art even stupifyed and past feeling it is to be feared it not onely argues a desperately hard heart to come and look upon Christ crucifyed held out in those Ordinances as our meat and drink to nourish us and not to relent but it hardens us so much the more Thou mayst yet come oft ento receive the Supper of the Lord but as often as thou dost it thou dost but more deeply poyson and fill thy soul O! Brethren that the Lord would let us see this day whether this be our condition and we have rotten hearts covered over with a glorious profession that we might not dare to draw near for we cannot have a Wedding-garment upon us brethren if we have not the habits of grace if we have not Christ for righteousness and holiness how can we act that grace which we have not Thou art fit for any thing else but for the worship of God thou art fit for thine own occasions and fit to serve the Devil to be at his beck but not to worship God in those Ordinances remember remember brethren though you may have somewhat now to answer us when we preach this word and to answer your own consciences and can make a shift to silence them when they tell you though you have a profession and name and are reckoned among the Saints yet you never were born again never did put on Christ indeed you cannot have a wedding garment though you may brethren deceive your selves and us and take this and that for a wedding-garment when the Lord Jesus shall come and ask you how comest thou in hither without a wedding garment thou hadst not a dram of grace thou never puttest me on for righteousness in believing how camest thou hither how durst thou be so bold as to draw nigh to my table to meddle with my precious blood and body broken for sinners when thou haddest not a wedding garment on you shall then be speechless it shall be so evident O take him bind him hand and foot hang these Ordinances and priviledges which he hath so long abused my blood and body which he hath eaten and drunk that is to say Sacramentally the signs of them as those in 1 Cor. 10. they did all eat the same spiritual meat c. and yet most of them perished sink him sink him he hath trampled my blood under his foot counted it an unholy thing else he would never have cared to have come with an unholy heart to it therefore now I will trample his soul in my fury unto the lowermost hell O! how this will sharpen the teeth of the gnawing worm to eternity O how this will inrage the flames of those everlasting burnings therefore consider this your sad condition let it be a terrible word to you the Lord give you hearts to tremble at it And in the last place Let us take heed how we rest and lean upon a profession and a name Methinks there needs no more Arguments to move us then what hath been spoken already What folly is it for a man to hang his weight upon that which he is told will break and then he falls into an irrecoverable gulf O! that we had that alway sounding in our ears in the seventh of Mat. Lord Lord open to us we have done this and that heard thee preach done wonderful works they were visible Saints surely at least and yet he calls them workers of iniquity which they might do in secret acts with pretences for God but intending themselves What if Simon Magus had had that power to give the gift of the Holy Ghost and had done it and replenished his purse by it for likely he that would have bought it would have been as ready to have sold it again he might have past for a Saint but what would his end have been O Brethren consider your latter end the Lord teach you that one point of wisdom that so in time 〈◊〉 may flee from that wrath to come But so much for this Doctrine also Verse 3 and 4. And they that were foolish took their Lamps and took no oyl with them But the wise took oyl in their vessels with their Lamps WE may read a wise man or a fool in his actions and so here the foolish took no oyl with their Lamps and what more foolish then that For the opening of the words I shall not need to say much by the Lamps I understand here a profession of Jesus Christ a name a shew the Apostle speaks of the Saints as light-bearers they should be burning and shining lights as John was Light there is and sometimes appearing heat even in formal professors as you see in the case of John how zealous for God And Judas a man would have thought him zealous when he said Why is this waste but it is like the light of the glow-worm touch it and it hath neither light nor heat they are indeed sparks of our own kindling as it is in that place of Isaiah the sparks there may be the action of Devotion and Duty which may be elicited or educed by the help of nature and of education and custom the conscience being enlightened by the Law of God in some measure and self-love working somewhat in men will put them on to do something to quiet their Consciences but alas these sparks quickly go out and the Lamp is put out in obscure darkness There may be also somewhat of Common-grace some enlightning of the minde and some kinde of affection as the second ground received the word gladly and Herod heard John gladly but a great difference between these and the Disciples who receiveed the word gladly the one rejoyced happily in that which in the word is suitable to a carnal appetite as the Eloquence as those in the Prophet thou art to them as one that plays on an Instrument but the other rejoyced in that of Christ which is therein found So the Bee is pleased with the Flower the Sheep with the Blade the Bird with the Seed and the Swine with the Root But new for the oyl in the vessels what is that The foolish took no oyl in their vessels with their lamps By this I understand brethren the oyl of the Spirit ye have received an anointing the Spirit of grace and the grace of the Spirit of Christ the Spirit dwelling in us there is a Cruse opened that will never be drawn dry like the Fountain of waters or Rivers springing up with eternal life it never sails By this then I understand the true saving work of grace in the heart a receiving of the Spirit of grace the Spirit of Christ by faith as the Apostle speaks by the hearing of faith by the Gospel the word of faith which was blessed to the working of saith in