and take them in And because this Discovery which God makes of himself to sinful and fallen man by his holy Word is an Act of meer Grace which Man had no wayes merited not could merit nor God could no wayes be obliged or engaged to therefore this Word of God is called the Word of his Grace in respect of the original of it it came forth from God it was the Grace of God that first revealed it Reas 2. It is the Word of Grace materially because the Grace of God towards sinners in Jesus Christ is the principal proper and specifick matter and subject of it True it is indeed that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All-that can possibly be known of God is revealed in the Word The simplicity unity perfection of his Essence the glorious Mystery of the Trinity of Persons the Wisdom Power Goodness Justice Holiness of God all these are made known to us in his Word wherein as in a glass we behold the glory of the Lord 2 Cor. 3.18 But that which the Word doth principally and chiefly reveal it is the Grace of God towards sinners in Jesus Christ this was the substance of that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that first Word which God revealed immediately after the Fall of Man in Paradise The Seed of the Woman shall break the Serpents head This was the substance and scope of all the Old Testament all the Sacrifices Laws and Ordinances concerning holy Persons and holy things they all tended to this And this is more clearly and fully the scope of the Gospel and New Testament to make known the unsearchable Riches of Christ as the Apostle speaks Ephes 3.8 And therefore of all the parts of the Scripture the Gospel the New Testament is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 called the Word of Grace and the Gospel of Grace because the whole design and scope of that is to reveal and make known unto sinners the Grace of God in Christ and that and that alone reveals it Men may talk what they please of those Universal Preachers the Sun Moon and Stars and tell us that they preach Christ The creatures indeed do sufficiently reveal God so as to leave all the World without excuse for not fearing and serving of God who made Heaven and Earth but worshipping the work of their own hands in his stead but Christ and the Grace of God towards sinners in Christ is the proper peculiar sole Revelation of the Gospel which therefore is called the Word of Grace Reas 3. The Word of God is the Word of Grace effectively because it works inherent qualitative Grace and Holiness in them that hear it not indeed in all the Word doth not work Grace in the hearts of all nor never did No but where-ever Grace is wrought in the hearts of any there ordinarily it is the Word that works and therefore it may be justly and duely called the Word of Grace So the Apostle Rom. 10.17 Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God So Gal. 3.2 Received you the Spirit by the works of the Law or by the hearing of Faith So our Saviour John 17.17 Sanctifie them through thy Truth thy Word is Truth So then the Word worketh Faith and Sanctification in the hearts of God's Children and therefore it is the Word of Grace Reas 4. The VVord of God is the VVord of Grace because it not only begets and begins Grace and layeth the foundation of it but it maintains and increaseth and carrieth on the work of Grace unto Glory As it follows here in the Text The VVord of his Grace which is able to build you up and give you an inheritance among all them that are sanctified Now this in the first place should teach us to bless God for the enjoying of his VVord more than for any other our Enjoyments whatsoever It is true we have cause to bless God for any thing for every thing we enjoy that we have bread to eat though never so course that we have rayment to put on though never so mean we have cause to bless God that we live in a Land of Hills and Valleys that is watered with Springs and with the Dew of Heaven in a fruitful and plentiful Land but that we live in a Land whither God hath caused the Word of his Grace to come this we have cause to bless God for infinitely more than for Corn and Wine and Oyl in greatest abundance Had God inriched this Nation with all the Mines and Treasures of both the Indies were all the Hills and High-wayes in England as full of Gold as they are of Sand were all the Rivers as full of Pearls as they are of Pebles did Cinamon and Cassia grow in England as thick as Bulrushes were all the Riches and Glories of the World laid up here as in Natures Store-house yet if God had hid the Word of his Grace from us what a miserable Nation had we been all this our Wealth would have exposed us to the cruel covetousness and rage of other Nations as it hath done the poor Indians and have sent us down to Hell certainly and unavoidably without any help or remedy But blessed be God for the Gospel of Grace for this VVord of Grace blessed be God blessed be God for the Word of Grace bestowed upon England he hath not dealt so with every Nation In England is God known his Name is great in England in England is his Tabernacle and his Dwelling-place in England He hath not dealt so with every Nation he hath not dealt so with any Nation Praise ye the Lord. Psal 147.20 In the second place This should teach us above all things to fear and deprecate the taking away the VVord of Grace from us or from our posterity after us It was a sore Judgment which the Lord threatned against Judah Jer. 16.5 I have taken away my Peace from this People saith the Lord my Loving-kindness and Mercy O my Brethren when God takes away the VVord of his Grace from a People then is this direful Judgment come upon them then hath God taken away his Peace from that People even Loving-kindness and Mercy then is that People left Regnum Cyclopicum in the Region of Darkness and the shadows of death an habitation for Dragons and Devils Take the Sun out of the Firmament and what would the World be but a Chaos of Confusion a Land of Darkness And satius esset Solem è Colo said the People of Constantinople of that famous Preacher Chrysostom Better the Sun should be taken out of the Skie than Chrysostom out of the Pulpit Chrysostom and an hundred Chrysostoms may be taken out of the Pulpit and yet the Word of Grace not taken away but if once the VVord of Grace be taken away then VVo Wo We to that Place and to that People Brethren you may remember I am sure you ought to remember that upon the 13th of October 1658. from those words Amos 8.11 I shewed
Ultimum Vale OR The Last FAREWEL of a Minister of the Gospel to a beloved People By MATTHEVV NEVVCOMEN M. A. late Preacher of the Gospel to the Church of Christ at Dedham in Essex Now to the English Church at Leyden in Holland Coelum non Animum Coelum ne Animum Non Animum ne Coelum Heb. 13.7 Remember them which have the rule over you who have spoken unto you the Word of God whose Faith follow considering the end of their conversation 2 Pet. 1.12 13. Wherefore I will not be negligent to put you alwayes in remembrance of these things though ye know them and be established in the present Truth Yea I think it meet as long as I am in this tabernacle to stir you up by putting you in remembrance London Printed in the Year 1663. Ultimum Vale OR The Last Farewel of a Minister of the Gospel to a Beloved People Acts 20.32 And now Brethren I commend you to God and to the Word of his Grace which is able to build you up and to give you an inheritance among them that are sanctified THe blessed Apostle Paul being from all Eternity intended and designed by God to be a glorious President of the Riches and Almightiness of his Pardoning Mercy and Converting Grace as the Apostle tells you 1 Tim. 1.14 God did therefore cause his Grace in the Conversion of Paul not only to abound but to super-abound As it is there expressed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He that was a Blasphemer and was a Persecutor and was Injurious being now by the rich and powerful Grace of God converted to be a Believer to be a Preacher to be a Martyr So the Lord Christ tells him at his first appearing to him as himself records it Acts 26.16 I have appeared to thee to make thee a Minister and a Martyr 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Non cuivis competit Every Saint of God is not called to such a degree of Honour as to be made a Minister and a Martyr the first day and that of their conversion No more than every King hath the honour to be a King as soon as he comes into the World But this was the exceeding abundant Grace of God towards Paul above all others Paul had now spent about some eighteen years in the painful and laborious discharge of his Ministry though not without some intermixtures of bitter Sufferings Drops of that great Martyrdom whereby he was to close and seal up his Ministry at last and glorifie God And having it now revealed to him that the time was drawing nigh wherein he must be offered up unto the Sacrifice and Service of that Faith which he had so long preached having visited several of the Churches planted by his own Ministry he now makes hast to Jerusalem though he knew that was the place where the Tragedy of his Suffering was to begin v. 22 23. Having therefore for the more expedition determined to slip by Ephesus for so the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies and not to touch or enter there for fear of being too long detained among them and yet not willing Insalutatos praeterire to pass by his Christian Friends and Brethren there without so much as saluting them Therefore from Miletus he sends to Ephesus and calls the Elders of the Church thither to Miletus to him ver 17. Ephesus was the Metropolis the cheif City of the lesser Asia where Paul had spent at several times three years in the preaching of the Gospel and by the blessing of God upon those labours had gathered there a Famous and a Glorious Church unto Jesus Christ and had there as in other Churches Acts 14.23 constituted and ordained Elders to whom he resigned the whole Care and Government of those Churches and that by the direction and appointment of the holy Ghost himself It is observed by many and is indeed very obvious and easy to observe that though here be mention of a Metropolis or chief City Ephesus and mention of a Church in that City The Church of Ephesus yet here is no mention of a Metropolitan Bishop or any Bishop at all as certainly there would have been if there had been a Biship or Superintendant over that Church but the Holy-Ghost plainly tels us that that Church was governed by a Consessus Presbyterorum by a company of Elders who did govern Communi Consilio and all and every one of those Elders were equally 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and that Jure Divino Not one Bishop and the rest of them Elders of an inferior order To these Elders thus assembled Paul gives his Ultimum Vale in this pathetical parting speech Wherein First He looks back to the course of his Ministry already past among them ver 18.21 Secondly He looks forward to his approaching Suffering and Martyrdom ver 22 23 24. Where he sheweth that he was a Martyr Animo Voto Proposito already Thirdly He tels them this is the last time that ever they shall behold him ver 25. And as Samuel when he was laying down his Office of Magistracy appeals to the People concerning his integrity in the Magistracy 1 Sam. 12.3 So Paul here appeals to these concerning his uprightness and faithfulness in the discharge of the Ministry Happy are those Magistrates and Ministers that when they are leaving their Office and Imployment can make these appeals Fourthly He exhorts them unto a due care First of themselves and then of the Flock committed to them upon a twofold account First because it was the Flock over which the Holy-Ghost had made them Overseeres Secondly Because it is the Flock which God hath purchased by his own Blood ver 28. Fiftly He enforceth this care and diligence further by a prediction of the danger which he saw threatning the Church and the Flock of Christ among them v. 29 30. Sixthly He resumes the Exhortation again and presseth it under another term of Watching and urgeth it by his own example ver 31. Seventhly He fairly and piously takes his leave of them in ver 32. And afterwards propounds his own example again unto them for imitation and so the action concludes on his part with Prayer ver 36. on their parts with Tears ver 37 38. A solemn and sad parting In the words of the 32. vers you have First The Agent I Paul by the appointment of God a Minister once your Minister now no longer like to be your Minister nor a Minister unless in bonds I Paul There is the Agent Secondly We have the Act Commend Our English word commend is ambiguous sometimes it signifies to praise a person or thing so 2 Cor. 3.1 Do we commend our selves or need we as some others Epistles of commendation to you or Letters of commendation from you Sometimes our English word Commend signifieth to resign or deliver up or commit a person or thing to the care or trust of another so Luke 23.46 Father into thy hands I commend my Spirit But in the Original there
spiritual sense God only is your Father he it is that begets you of his own good will by the Word of Truth Jam. 1.18 Though indeed that Word be dispensed by us as instruments and when he hath thus begotten you he is pleased to trust and honour us so far as to make us Foster-Fathers and Nursing-Fathers to you and this cannot but beget some kind of Affections and Respect in us to you and in you to us as there is between Nurse-Fathers and Nurse-Children and a lothness to part But I beseech you consider If a King that hath had a Child at Nurse some years in a private house judge it convenient to part the Child and Nurse one from another and the Nurse-Father upon notice given of the King's mind carries the Child home and delivers it up into the King 's own arms who is the true and proper Father and is a thousand times better able to provide for the Child than the Nurse-Father and more engaged to do it too hath this poor Child any hurt or any cause to complain or to cry after the Nurse-Father I will go home to my Father again Think my Brethren the case is the same here We have been Nursing-Fathers to you for some time God seeth it fit to make a change who are we that we should murmur or find fault or what cause have you to complain We resign you up into the hands of your Father and our Father your God and our God Why should you cry after us are you not well enough can you be better than in the arms of your dear gracious and mercifull Father Obj. But what shall we do for Ordinances how shall we live who shall feed and nourish our poor souls Ans You that do indeed love and prize and hunger after the Ordinances I will say to you as Abram did in another care My son God will provide As for the rest of you you that neither loved the Ordinances while you had them nor have been at all quickened by the withdrawing of them what God will do with you I cannot tell But you that love and prize the Ordinances I say to you concerning your souls as our Saviour concerning your bodies Take no thought what you shall eat and what you shall drink nor how your poor souls shall live in a time of straitness and scarcity That God that when Israel were in such a place as they could neither sow nor reap fed them with bread from Heaven that God if he bring you into such a condition as you can neither enjoy Word nor Sacraments will feed you too with hidden Manna that shall be better than Word and Sacraments that God who multiplied the Meal in the Widows barrel and the Oyl in her cruse that though her stock was little yet it served turn and lasted as long as the famine lasted So I dare confidently say it shall be with you that fear God in Truth and love his Ordinances in sincerity the less your stock of Grace in your own eyes be be it very little and small it shall hold out till you come to Heaven your handful of Meal and your cruise of Oyl shall not fail As for the rest of People in this Place and Nation what God will do with them I know not I am loth to speak what I see cause to fear even concerning this very place But I shall commend you to God after I have spoken a little of what follows And the Word of his Grace Mark here the Apostle doth not say I commend you to God and the impulse of his Spirit or I commend you to God and the Light within or I commend you to God and the Traditions of men or I commend you to God and the Customs and Orders of the holy Church No these are some of them uncertain others of them unprofitable things But we have a more sure Word 2 Pet. 1.19 A profitable Word a Word able to make wise to Salvation even the Holy Scriptures and to this next under God and in joynt co-operation with God for the good of their souls doth the Apostle commend these Christians I commend you to God and the Word of his Grace From thence observe That the Word of God it is the Word of God's Grace So we find it stiled not onely here but in Acts 14.3 They gave testimony to the Word of his Grace So in chap. 20. ver 24. it is called The Gospel of the Grace of God And the Word of God is the Word of his Grace upon this fourfold account Reas 1. Because it comes from Grace It was the meer Free-Grace of God that moved him to reveal and give forth this Word of his as a Revelation of himself unto the children of men Adam was at first created in such a condition as he needed not a word without to lead him into the true knowledge of the true God He was created after the Image of God in Knowledge Righteousness and Holiness he had the Law of God written in his heart And as the High Priest of old having the Vrim and Thummim upon his breast needed but cast his eye upon that and he might presently kmow any thing that he had a mind to know of God So Adam in his innocency it was for him but to reflect upon himself to cast his eye inward and presently he might know of God and of his Mind and Will that which he did desire But as the Vrim and Thummim being lost in the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians God was pleased as the Rabbins tell us to favour his People with a vocal answer from the Oracle which they called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Bathcol a voice without them instead of inward light and inspiration So this innate light of the knowledge of God being extinct and lost by that universal ruine which the sin of Adam hath brought upon all mankind and all mankind now being nothing but blindness and darkness alienated from the Life of God through the ignorance that is in them Ephes 4.18 able at the best but to feel and grope after God as the Apostles expression is Acts 17.27 even as the men of Sodom when they were struck with blindness groped to find the door of Lot's house til they wearied themselves but were never able to find it Gen. 19.11 So it is with all men now by Nature therefore the Lord who is said to dwell in Light inaccessible 1 Tim. 6.16 and who is a Fountain of pure Light inexhaustible 1 John 1.5 hath pleased to display unto his poor creatures some beams of his own Light and that in such a refracted way as their weak nature may be capable of without being overwhelmed and swallowed up with that Glory And to this end hath treasured up those Beams of Light in his holy Scriptures from whence they dart forth unto us not all at once and in their fulness but gradatim and by little and little as we are able to bear them
you what a heavy Judgment it was to have the Word of God taken from you I told you then it may be some of you thought too peremptorily God would bring this Judgment upon this Nation and this Congregation in particular I did bid you write it in a book the Year and Month and Day when I spake it therefore you may remember it God after this prediction waited the term of his Patience mentioned Luke 13.7 even three years and then soon after God began to inflict this Judgment O my Brethren had that warning been believed and improved to Humiliation Repentance closer Walking with God higher prizing the Word and Ordinances a study to walk worthy of the Gospel and Grace of God assuredly the evil threatned might have been prevented but where God hath sealed a Decree for his Judgments there Warnings do but harden the heart and hasten the Judgment When God had a purpose to destroy Ahab Micajahs words shall bear no sway with him When God had a purpose to destroy Jerusalem there Jeremiah Ezekiel and all the Prophets shall be mocked despised slighted laughed to scorn O that it had not been so with us Well Brethren you were told of this before you would not believe it then Will you believe it now Now you begin to feel it will you believe what you feel will you lay it to heart will you give glory to God if not I tell you what you feel is yet nothing to that you are like to feel The first year of the Famine in Egypt was nothing so bad as the second nor that as the third nor the third as the seventh every year the Famine grew sorer and pinched harder and harder Believe it so it will be with you you are not yet put to wander from Sea to Sea and from Coast to Coast to seek the Word of the Lord but believe it if these beginnings be not laid to heart you will once before God hath done with you be brought to this So the Text there saith plainly They shall go from Sea to Sea and from Coast to Coast to seek the VVord of the Lord and shall not find it This Threatning God fulfilled upon the Church and People of the Jews taking away the Spirit and gift of Prophecy from that Church from the time of the Prophet Malachi unto the birth of John the Baptist which was between three and four hundred years which is the thing pointed at in Psal 74.9 We see not our Signs neither is there any more any Prophet And withal at the same time God laid them under the forest Persecutions for their Religion that ever that Church and People met withal The same Judgment hath once been upon this Nation and upon the Christian World already God grant that our sins do not bring it a second time upon us But In the third place Is the VVord of God the VVord of his Grace Then this reproves all those that have lived under the continual dispensation of this VVord of Grace and yet have got no saving Grace no saving good by it but continue blind ignorant impenitent hard-hearted secure unbelieving unholy and that under the constant preaching of the Word O that such would in the fear of God consider First How dangerous their condition is Secondly How great their Condemnation will be First Consider how dangerous your condition is All you that live under the VVord of Grace and get no saving Grace no saving good by it Reade that one Text Heb. 6.7 8. For the Earth that drinketh in the rain that cometh oft upon it and bringeth forth herbs meet for them by whom it is dressed that is answerable to their gift and labours and continuance is blessed of God But that which bringeth forth briars and thorns is near unto cursing How near and unto what cursing in this life God only knows but to be sure their end will be sad whose end is to be burned A fearful end and such as should make the heart of every one who is guilty of being unfruitful under the VVord of Grace tremble to think or hear of it especially considering how little hope there is for such a one to escape this curse and to escape this dreadful and dismal end for if the VVord of Grace that is the power of God himself unto Salvation if that can do no good upon thee what can if that cannot work upon thy blind ignorant prophane hard heart no not in ten twenty thirty or forty years what can I tell thee if thou art past getting good by the VVord of Grace thou art past getting good by any thing at all Luke 16.31 If they hear not Moses and the Prophets neither will they hear though one from the dead were sent unto them If what thou hearest from the VVord of Grace of the VVrath of God against impenitent sinners and the Grace and Mercy of God towards poor repenting sinners if what thou readest and hearest in and from the VVord of the torments of Hell and of the joyes of Heaven if what thou readest and hearest from the Word of these things do not bring thee to Repentance and Faith in the Lord Jesus nothing else will No though one should come immediately out of Hell with Hell-flames about his ears and burning brimstone dropping down at his heels to warn thee and fright thee from those torments or if an Angel should come from Heaven cloathed with the Sun and crowned with Stars to allure thee to Holiness by those glorious Rewards neither the one or the other will work upon thee to any purpose if the VVord of Grace hath not wrought upon thee for that is the Instrument that God hath appointed and ordained and made fit and able to work Grace in the Soul and therefore if that do not work upon thee what canst thou think will And if thou continue still in this condition not profiting by the VVord without any saving work of the VVord upon thee O consider how inexcusable how intolerable thy damnation will be Why doth our Saviour tell Chorazin and Bethsaida and the rest of the Cities where he had gone up and down preaching the VVord of Grace that it should be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah for Tire and Sidon in the day of Judgement than for them Mat. 11.22 24. But because Sodom and Gomorrah never had the Word of Grace preached among them as these Cities had had Turks and Heathens Sodomites and Gomorrahns yea the Devil and his Angels shall have more to plead in excuse of themselves in the day of Judgement than those that have lived under the Word of Grace and never did get any saving good by it Turks and Heathens Sodomites and Gomorrahans will be able to say Lord thou never sentest Prophets or Apostles or Ministers among us to tell us of the danger of sin or to call and summon us to Repentance to make known to us thy Will and the wayes of Grace and Holiness if thou hadst we should
the true reason why the Pope and his Accomplices do so studiously smother the Scriptures from their People is that rendred by our Saviour John 3.20 For every one that doth evil hateth the Light neither cometh to the Light lest his deeds should be reproved And their doom shall be with those Luke 11.52 Wo unto you Lawyers for you have taken away the Key of Knowledge you entered not in your selves and them that were entered in you hindered In the second place This reproves the Impiety of the Papists who under pretence of honouring the Scriptures shut them from the commom people So this on the other side reproves the blasphemy of those that think themselvs too good to stand in need of the Scriptures the Word of God The Papists think the Scriptures too good for the vulgar people to have any thing to do withal these think themselves though God knows they are poor ignorant people yet they think themselves too good to have any thing to do with the Scriptures or to stand in need of any instruction or direction from the Scriptures the Word of God they think they have the VVord of God within the Light within and that is sufficient for them Indeed they will grant you that the Prophecy of Isaiah and Jeremiah it was the Word of God to Isaiah and Jeremiah and the People that lived in their times and so the Epistles of Paul and Peter they were the VVord of God to Peter and Paul and to those to whom they wrote them but as for themselves they have they make account the same infallible Spirit that Peter and Paul had and the dictates and motions of that Spirit are the same infallible VVord of God to them that it was to the Prophets and Apostles binding them and others to whom they are sent to speak it as infallibly as the Revelation of God to the Prophets and Apostles and their speaking them to others did bind them O Pride O Blasphemy Supposing it to be true which they say that they have the same infallible Spirit which the Apostles and Prophets had Yet first it will not follow that they have it in the same Operations and Manifestations that the Prophets and Apostles had it is a certain Truth that all the Elect of God that are sanctified have but one and the same Spirit quickning all guiding all As it is written There is one Body and one Spirit Eph. 4.4 But saith the Apostle there are diversity of Gifts but the same Spirit and diversity of Administrations and diversity of Operations 1 Cor. 12.4 5 6. And all these worketh one and the same Spirit ver 11. Thus it was in the Apostles dayes all that had the same Spirit that Peter and Paul had to renew them and sanctifie them and work all Grace in them needful to Salvation had not the same infallible Guidance of the Spirit to enable them to deliver things that should be infallible and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Are all Apostles are all Prophets 1 Cor. 12.29 much less then can it be said now And it is highest presumption for any one that thinks he hath received and hath indeed received the Spirit unto sanctification to think that therefore he hath the Spirit in its infallible guidance and direction Secondly Suppose that these People had the Spirit of infallible guidance and direction and were indeed inspired Prophets yet that doth not give them a supersedeas from attending to the Scripture the Word of God Daniel was a Prophet immediately infallibly inspired yet he studied the Scriptures Dan. 9.2 I Daniel understood by Books the number of the years whereof the Word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the Prophet So did David though an inspired Prophet Psal 119. So did all the Prophets 1 Pet. 1.10 11. Of which the Prophets have enquired and searched diligently who prophesied of the Grace that should come unto you searching what or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signifie when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the Glory that should follow So that were they what they would pretend to be which they are not Prophets yet they are not too good to attend still upon the Scriptures the Word of God Methinks I hear the God of Heaven speaking to these poor but proud ones as sometimes he did by way of holy sarcasm to the Prince of Tyre Ezek. 28.2 and so on Because thine heart is lifted up and thou hast said I am a God He that saith he is godded with God and perfect as God is doth he not say I am a God Behold thou art wiser than Daniel ver 3. Daniel was such a simple man as though he was a Prophet and had glorious Visions and Inspirations yet he like a simple man would hang upon the Scriptures the written Word of God but thou art wiser than Daniel thou regardest not the Scriptures thou hast as sure and infallible a Light within thee as that Word is Thou sealest up the sum full of wisdom and perfect in beauty ver 12. Thou hast been in Eden the Garden of God every precious stone was thy covering ver 13. Thou art the anointed Cherub thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire ver 14. Thou wast perfect in thy wayes from the day that thou wert created ver 15. All this is spoken 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to the opinion that the Prince of Tyre had of himself God doth but speak his own words and thoughts And truly such are the thoughts of this proud generation they think they are so perfect and so full of wisdom they have no need of the Scriptures the VVord of God In the third place Let this that you have heard That even the best have need of the VVord O let it teach every one of you to labour to maintain in your heart an humble sense of your continual need of the Word an holy hunger after the Word a ready closing with every Opportunity of attending upon the Word a lothness above all things to part with the VVord to be left without the VVord better part with the Light of your eyes with the Bread that is the staff of your lives yea with the Life of your bodies than part with the VVord which is able to build you up and give you an inheritance among them that are sanctified And so I come to the third Doctrine which is this That the VVord of God is able to build up the Saints Therefore saith Paul here I commend you to God and the VVord of his Grace which is able to build you up Yea might they think it is true if we had such a one as Paul for to preach the VVord of God still unto us then indeed we should hope to be edified and built up Nay saith the Apostle though I shall preach no more to you and though you shall see my face no more whatever becomes of me yet the VVord of
of this that thou art an Heir of Heaven arm thy self against the sears of Death let Death be terrible to those whose portion is solely and wholly in this life whom Death separates from all the good they have and hope for As for thee who art a Child of God an Heir of Heaven why shouldst thou fear Death that doth but put thee into the actual possession of thy Inheritance Ejus est mortem timere qui ad Christum nolit ire ejus est ad Christum nolle ire qui se non credit cum Christo incipere regnare saith Cyprian Let him fear Death that is unwilling to go to Christ let him be unwilling to go to Christ that doth not believe he is a Joynt-Heir with Christ in the Kingdom of Heaven The same Cyprian speaks of a man that when he lay a dying with some unwillingness and lothness to dye had a Vision of one like the Son of Man appearing by him saying to him with some kind of indignation Pati timetis exire non vultis quid faciam pro vobis You are afraid to suffer you are not willing to depart what shall I do for you O think what a shame it is for those who when they do hope for this Inheritance to be so unwilling and loth to die as that Jesus Christ should have occasion thus to speak unto them A fourth Duty we should learn from hence is To walk worthy of this Inheritance And so First Far be it from those who profess and believe themselves to be Heirs of Heaven to be eager and covetous and greedy of earth and earthly things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. If a King saith Chrysostom should take a Beggar from the Dunghil and make him the Heir of his Crown and be after this should go up and down a begging from door to door and be as solicitous about his raggs and patched clothes as he was before he was adopted to that Inheritance would not this be a disgrace to himself and to the King that had adopted him and would not all the World condemn him as a man of a base and dunghil spirit unworthy of that Honour and that Inheritance that was cast upon him For thee that art a Christian whom God hath taken from the Dunghil and made an Heir of Heaven for thee to be as greedy of the world as gripple of a half-peny or a peny as if thou wert one of the Worlds beggars still this is a base ignoble thing unworthy of such an Heir as thou dost pretend thy self to be Therefore abhor it away with it Secondly If thou be an Heir of Heaven labour to be content with thy present condition whatever it be in expectation and assurance of that Inheritance thou hopest for There is many a great Heir when he is in his minority lives in a pretty mean condition and makes nothing of it bears it all with patience he knows it will be better with him one day when he comes to Age there is a fair Estate coming to him and in the thoughts of that he comforts himself in his present condition So thou that art an Heir of Heaven though at the present thou livest barely and goest near the wind yet content and comfort thy self with this Thou hast a rich and glorious Inheritance reserved for thee in the highest Heavens when once thou comest to the enjoyment of that thou shalt be full and want nothing This was it which made the Patriarchs Abraham Isaac and Jacob content with a poor pilgrim life and condition a wandring state and condition because they looked for a better Country and when this took up their hearts then they could chearfully sit down in their Tents they could dwell in strange Countries they could go on in obedience to God what way soever he called them readily and so should we Thirdly Never fret nor repine at the happiness and prosperity of the Wicked When we see them swimming and bathing in all that affluence of good things which Job or David expresseth Job 21. and Psalm 73. They have Corn and Wine and Oyl and Gold and Silver and House and Lands and Children to inherit them Thou poor thou hast none of these things but hast thou Heaven though but in reversion never trouble thy self thy portion is an hundred thousand times better than theirs Was it any grief of heart think ye to Isaac to see the sons of Keturah have great gifts bestowed upon them by Abraham one of them it may be so many thousand Yoak of Oxen another so many thousand Sheep and Camels a third so many Talents of Gold and Silver as long as Isaac had the Inheritance this was no grief of heart to him Much good may it do them thinks he as long as the Inheritance is mine So say thou Much good may it do the World with all their Wealth and Riches as long as Heaven is mine I envy them not Thus much for the two first things Heaven is an Inheritance This Inheritance is a Gift I come now to the third and that is this That God gives the Inheritance of Heaven to his Children by his Word Therefore the Gift of this Inheritance is in part ascribed to the Word Which is able to build you up and give you an Inheritance A Father gives such or such an Inheritance to his Child by Testament or by Instrument in writing The Word of God it is Testamentum it is Instrumentum whereby God conveyeth the Inheritance of Heaven to his Saints and Children First God reveals by his Word that there is such an Inheritance reserved in the Heavens which were it not that God had revealed it in his Word the weak heart of sinful and fallen man could have no true notions or conceptions of For eye hath not seen nor ear heard neither can it enter into the heart of man to conceive the things which God hath prepared for them that love him The poor Heathens did stumble upon the Notion of Eternal rewards and punishments but alas fell as far short of the true Notion of those rewards and punishments as Earth is of Heaven But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit 1 Cor. 2.10 that is by his Spirit in his Word Secondly As God reveals this Inheritance to us by his Word so secondly God makes offer of this Inheritance to us in his Word and invites and calls us to the participation of it 2 Thess 2.13 14. God hath from the beginning chosen you to Salvution whereunto he called you by our Gospel to the obtaining of the Glory of the Lord Jesus Christ Thirdly As God revealeth this Inheritance and calls and invites to the participation of it so God in his Word specifies who and what manner of persons they are upon whom he will bestow it Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven which the righteous Judge shall give and not to me only but to all that love his appearing 2 Tim. 4.8