compose and purifie the Mind and make Sin more odious and fortifie us against the Baits of Sense which are the occasion of all the Sin in the World All our Joy is to be considered with respect to its Use and Profit Eccles. 2. 2. I said of laughter It is mad and of mirth What doth it The more a Man delighteth in God and in the Ways of God the more he cleaveth to him and resolveth to go on in this Course and Temptations to Sensual Delights do less prevail for the joy of the Lord is our strength The safety of the Spiritual Life lieth in the keeping up our Joy and Delight in it Heb. 3. 6. Whose house are we if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoycing of the hope firm unto the end Isa. 64. 5. Thou meetest him who rejoyceth and worketh righteousness But now Carnal Delights intoxicate the Mind and fill it with Vanity and Folly The Sensitive Lure hath more power over us to draw into the slavery of Sin Tit. 3. 3. For we our selves were also foolish deceived serving divers lusts and pleasures Surely then the healing Delights should be preferred before the killing wounding Pleasures that so often prove a snare to us 2. The Object is to be considered thy commandments Here observe 1. David did not place his Delight in Folly or Filthiness as they do that glory in their shame or delight in Sin and giving contentment to the Lusts of the Flesh as the Apostle speaks of some that sport themselves in their own deceivings 2 Pet. 2. 13. that do not onely live in sin but make a sport of it beguiling their own hearts with groundless apprehensions that there is no such evil and hazard therein as the Word declareth and Conscience sometimes suggesteth they are beholden to their sottish Error and Delusion for their Mirth Neither did he place his Delight in Temporal trifles the Honours and Pleasures and Profits of the World as bruitish Worldlings do but in the Word of God as the Seed of the New Life the Rule of his Conversation the Charter of his Hopes that blessed Word by which his Heart might be renewed and sanctified his Conscience setled his Mind acquainted with his Creators Will and his Affections raised to the Hopes of Glory The Matter which feedeth our Pleasures sheweth the Excellency or Baseness of it If like Beetles we delight in a Dunghil rather than a Garden or the Paradise of God's Word it shews a base mean Spirit as Swine in wallowing in the mire or Dogs to eat their own Vomit Our Temper and Inclination is known by our Complacency or Displacency Rom. 7. 5. For when we were in the flesh the motions of sin which were by the law did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death Therefore see which your hearts carry you to to the World or the Word of God The most part of the World are carried to the Pleasures of Sense and mastered by them but a Divine Spirit or Nature put into us makes us look after other things 2 Pet. 1. 4. Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises even of the great blessings of the new Covenant such as Pardon of Sin Eternal Life c. 2. Not onely in the Promissory but Mandatory part of the Word Commandments is the Notion in the Text. There is matter of great Joy contained in the Promises but they must not be looked upon as exclusive of the Precepts but inclusive Promises are spoken of Psal. 119. 111. Thy testimonies have I taken as an heritage for ever for they are the rejoycing of my heart They contain spiritual and heavenly Riches and so are matter of Joy to a believing Soul but the Commandments call for Duty on our parts The Precepts appoint us a pleasant Work shew us what is to be done and left undone These Restraints are grateful to the New Nature for the compliance of the Will with the Will of God and its conformity to his Law hath a Pleasure annexed to it A renewed Soul would be subject to God in all things therefore delights in his Commandments without limitation or distinction 3. It is not in the Study or Contemplation of the Justice and Equity of these Commandments but in the Obedience and Practice of them There is a pleasure in the Study and Contemplation for every Truth breedeth a delectation in the mind Psal. 19. 8. The statutes of the Lord are right rejoycing the soul. It is a blessed and pleasant thing to have a sure Rule commending it self with great evidence to our Consciences and manifesting it self to be of God therefore the sight of the Purity and Certainty of the Word of God is a great pleasure to any considering Mind no other Study to be compared with it But the Joy of Speculation or Contemplation is nothing to that of Practice Nothing maketh the Heart more chearful than a good Conscience or a constant walking in the way of God's Commandments 2 Cor. 1. 12. Our rejoycing is this the testimony of our conscience that with simplicity and godly sincerity not with fleshly wisdom but by the grace of God I have had my conversation in the world Let me give you this Gradation The Pleasures of Contemplation exceed those of Sense and the Delights of the Mind are more sincere and real than those of the Body for the more noble the Faculty is the more capable of Delight A Man in his Study about Natural things hath a truer pleasure than the greatest Epicure in the most exquisite enjoyment of Sense Prov. 24. 13 14. My son eat thou honey because it is good and the honey-comb which is sweet to thy taste so shall the knowledge of wisdom be unto thy soul when thou hast found it then there shall be a reward and thy expectation shall not be cut off But especially the Contemplation of Divine things is pleasant the Objects are more sublime certain necessary profitable and here we are more deeply concerned than in the Study of Nature Surely this is sweeter than Honey and Honey-comb to understand and contemplate the way of Salvation by Christ This is an Heaven upon Earth to know these things Iohn 17. 3. This is life eternal to know thee the onely true God and Iesus Christ whom thou hast sent As much as the Pleasures of the Natural Mind do exceed these Bodily Pleasures so much do these Pleasures of Faith and Spiritual Knowledge exceed those of the Natural Mind These things the Angels desire to pry into Now the Delights of Practical Obedience do far exceed those which are the meer result of Speculation and Contemplation Why Because they give us a more intimate feeling of the Truth and Worth of these things and our Right in them thereby is more secured and our Delight in them is heightned by the supernatural Operation of the Holy Ghost The Joy of the Spirit is said to be unspeakable and full of glory 1 Pet. 1. 18. In short
Some to revive the pristine Purity others the old peaceable Spirit God hath so counterballanced all Parties that they may be mutually helpful But not that we despise and contemn any other and seek to destroy and subvert another and so make way for great mischiefs Every one hath enough to humble him and enough to render him useful to humane Society Therefore we must not set at nought our brother Rom. 14. 10. God hath made him something which thou art not and given him an ability to do something thou canst not do or wouldst not submit unto Contempt is the fruit of Pride there are none but deserve some respect Scorn is the bane of humane Society Secondly It betrayeth it self in contention with Equals Wrath and contention cometh by pride Prov. 13. 10. Every one seeks to be eminent and would excel Not in graces and gifts that 's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an holy emulation but in rank and place We set too high a price upon our selves and when others will not come up to our price we are troubled We ascribe too much to our selves and when we meet not with that respect and honour which we affect we fall into contention and break out into strifes supposing our selves neglected We see it often what a make-bait this is in the world if others do not accommodate themselves to our sense if they approve not all things we say if their Opinion differeth a little or it may be nothing from ours Men pertinaciously obstinate in their Preconceptions will not change Opinion upon apparent evidence But now humble men are always peaceable they can better give and take these respects which are done to one another than others can The Apostle saith Ephes. 5. 21. Submit your selves to one another in the fear of God There is a service of love which every one oweth to another for their mutual good and advantage and is called Submission though it be to Equals because our proud and lofty spirits look upon it as below us There are none living whom God alloweth to live only to themselves Now that there may be an equality we are to stoop and condescend to one another others are to live to us and we to them 1 Pet. 5. 5. Be subject one to another and be cloathed with humility for God resisteth the proud and giveth grace to the humble This mutual subjection to another in the duties of love can never be obtained till we learn to moderate our esteem of our selves and heighten our esteem of others we can neither advise nor instruct nor esteem one another nor maintain peace in our Relations and perform all Christian offices to each other till this spirit prevail with us Thirdly By undutifulness to Superiors or those that are preferred in honour before our selves Proud men would be admired of all well thought of and spoken of by all and preferred above all and if it be not so they are discontented and a secret enmity and malignity invadeth their spirits and setleth it self there it is an apparent fruit of natural corruption Iam. 4. 5. The spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy Men cannot endure either the real or reputed excellency of others The proud creature would shine alone Therefore we are secretly nibling at the credit of others blasting their reputation and desire by all means to lessen them or that they should be lessened and where this disposition prevaileth into any degree of strength and tyranny it groweth outragious Prov. 27. 4. Wrath is cruel and anger is outragious but who is able to stand before envy For when we are grieved at the prosperity and excellency of others we seek to undermine them by all the means we can devise As when the Brothers of Ioseph sought to put him out of the way And when Saul envied David he was still plotting his destruction So when the Pharisees envied Christ If we let him alone all men will run after him This brought them to crucifie the Lord of glory Anger venteth it self in sudden flashes and Wrath in some present act of violence but Envy is injurious and treacherous Anger and Wrath suppose some offence but Envy is troubled at the goodness and excellency of others Anger and Wrath are assuaged by degrees and when the raging Billows and Tempest ceaseth there is a Calm but this groweth by time and is exasperated more and more the longer those whom we envy are in good condition Now this affection reigned in us in our natural estate Tit. 3. 3. and remaineth in some degree in the best 4. Another expression of Pride is impatiency of Admonitions and Reproofs that is the cause of the wickeds hatred of the Godly because their lives are a real reproof Ioh. 7. 7. The world hateth me because I testifie of it that the works thereof are evil Heb. 11. 7. But surely it argueth a proud spirit when men cannot endure friendly counsel and will not have their privy sores touched but they grow fierce and outragious especially when they excel others in Rank and Power As when the Prophet reproved Amaziah 2 Chron. 25. 16. Art thou made of the King's Counsel forbear why shouldst thou be smitten so 2 Chron. 18. 23. He smote him on the cheek and said When went the spirit of the Lord from me to speak unto thee So the Pharisees hated Christ because of his free Reproofs Ioh. 9. 40. Are we blind also They cannot endure to hear of their faults especially from one in an inferiour condition and think every reproof to be a reproach though never so wisely and compassionately managed and that it is beneath their rank to stoop to it though Iob despised not the cause of his maid-servants Job 31. if they had any thing to say against him And David stopped upon Abigails motion 1 Sam. 25. 26. 5. Take heed of building too securely upon earthly enjoyments as if your Estate were so firm and secure that it could not be altered because you are high and great in Wealth Power Honour and Esteem Confidence in our outward Estate is a sure note of Pride Psal. 10. 4 5. The wicked through the pride of his countenance will not seek after God God is not in all his thoughts His ways are always grievous thy judgments are far above out of his sight as for all his enemies he puffeth at them He hath said in his heart I shall not be moved I shall not be in adversity There the Psalmist chargeth Pride on the wicked and such a Pride as ariseth from confidence in outward prosperity and mentioneth a double effect not only slighting their Adversaries but God himself 'T is no matter for any terms of peace or moderation towards their Adversaries his ways are always grievous Therefore are they violent fierce and high and severe towards them do not need the protection of God therefore cold flat negligent in Prayer yea scorn to implore God by Prayer for any Blessing They are so high in Place and Power
he is reduced to exigences then is the time to put the Bonds in suit God by promise hath made himself a Debtor As having nothing yet possessing all things 2 Cor. 6. 10. They have all things in the promise though nothing in sense If we have but one gracious promise left to subsist upon we cannot be poor 't is better riches than all the world for then our right to God and eternal Life still remaineth If an Estate here should last till death yet then certainly men try the weakness of their portion When other men find the worthlesness and baseness of their portion you find the sweetness fulness and comfort of yours Carnal men have but an Estate for life at best Luke 16. 25. Son in thy life time thou receivedst thy good things when they come to die they can look for no more then they find the gnawing Worm of Conscience prove matter of vexation and torment but then your heritage comes to the full Psal. 73. 26. My flesh and my heart faileth but God is the strength of my heart and my portion for ever Not only when all outward comforts fail all Creatures in the world have spent their allowance but when the flesh begins to fail when we consume and faint away and hasten to the Grave Lord then thou failest not thou art the strength of my heart and my portion for ever We have an interest in the eternal God and we shall live eternally to enjoy him God lives for ever and we live for ever that we may enjoy God 2. Now I come to give the Reasons Why it is the property of Believers to chuse this for their portion and why no others can do it It is the property of Believers to do so upon two Grounds 1. Because of the wisedome that is in Faith Faith is a spiritual prudence You shall see Faith is opposed not only to ignorance but to folly because it teacheth us to make a wise choice Reason makes us wise to chuse a good portion in this World The Children of this world are wiser in their Generation than the Children of Light Luke 16. 9. But Faith is for the inward and spiritual life Worldly men are wise in worldly employments to make a wise choice and accomplish such things they affect turn and wind in the world there they excel the Children of God but Faith makes us wise for Eternity and therefore it chuseth the better portion Faith is a spiritual light and seeth a worth in other things It is a notable Saying Prov. 23. 4. Labour not to be rich cease from thine own wisdom How came these two things to be coupled If we had no better wisedom than our own we should spend our time strength and care to labour to be rich Humane wisedom doth only incline and enable us to the affairs of the present life but God infuseth a supernatural light into the Saints they have counsel from the Lord Psal. 16. 7. I will bless the Lord who hath given me counsel my reins also instruct me in the night seasons as if he had said Ah Lord if I am left to my self and the workings of my own natural spirit I should be as vain and foolish as others are but thou hast given me counsel 2. The next Reason is Because of the nobleness and height of spirit that is in Faith Faith will not be satisfied with any slight fancies it must have better things than the world yieldeth The great priviledg of the Covenant and work of Grace is to give us a new heart that is another manner of Spirit than we had before Our natural spirit is the spirit of the world a cheap vile low spirit that will be satisfied with every base thing Every man seeketh something for his portion for no man hath sufficiency in himself but seeketh it without natural men go no further than the world riches honour pleasure they seek it some in one thing some in another there is none more unsatisfied than a worldly man for his heart cannot find rest and yet none are sooner satisfied a worldly man is not dainty but taketh up what is next at hand You think there is no such excellent spirited men as they that have high designs in the world and can atchieve Greatness and Honour But a poor Christian is of a more excellent spirit these things will not give him contentment nothing on this side God Faith yieldeth a man a choise spirit it makes us take the testimonies of the Lord for our heritage A renewed Soul it hath its aspirings it gets up to God and will not be satisfied with worldly delights but thou art my portion saith my soul Lam. 3. 24. Others hunt after other things beneath God Heaven the Graces of the Spirit the righteousness of Christ. Therefore thus it must needs be the property of Gods Children because they have another understanding and another heart And then none but the Children of God can have these priviledges Why Because though they are very magnificent and glorious yet they are invisible and for the most part future and to come they make no fair shew in the flesh this is hidden Manna meat and drink the world knows not of Carnal men look upon an Estate that lies in the Covenant to be but a notion and mere conceit and they cannot believe they shall be provided for if God bears the purse for them they cannot live immediately upon God they must have something visible outward and glorious and partly this inheritance is to come therefore they cannot have this property Heb. 6. 12. Be ye Followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises The testimonies of the Lord are an inheritance we cannot come at presently there needs a great deal of faith and patience in waiting upon God As a hired Servant must have money from Quarter to Quarter and cannot with the Child expect when the inheritance will befall him A carnal heart dares not trust God cannot tarry his leisure wicked men have their reward Mat. 6. 2. they must have present wages glory honour and profit here they discharge God of other things because it 's a thing which costs them much waiting an humble dependance upon God conflicts with many difficulties and hardships carnal men see no beauty in it and because it is to come it turns their Stomachs SERMON CXXII PSAL. CXIX VER III. Thy Testimonies have I taken as an heritage for ever for they are the rejoycing of my heart USE 1. It informs us what 's the reason why a Believer that hath nothing in hand nothing to live upon yet is not only patient but comfortable and joyful as the men of the world when their Corn Wine and Oil encrease Whence are these men maintained supplied and kept up at such a rate of cheerfulness Their inheritance lies in the promise As Christ said I have meat and drink the world knows not of so they have Land and Estate the world knows
compared with Wealth p. 489 490 491 619 It teaches many excellent Lessons p. 592 593 It deserves Love for the Author Matter Use p. 622 It 's a full Declaration of Gods mind p. 8 153 It 's a certain Declaration of his Mind and Will p. 8 It declares 1. what we must do 2. whether we do it or no 3. what we may expect from God p. 9 It is self-evidencing p. 9 It will excuse or accuse in the day of Judgment p. 6 It 's not only a Direction but an Injunction p. 24 349 It 's a Light by day a Lamp by night p. 687 688 why 689 It s a rule and an Instrument p 53 688 In it we are to consider 1. the Authority 2. the Ministry of it p. 488 892 It 's a Glass to shew us our spots and water to wash them away p. 54 Three main uses of the Word of God p. 491 It 's 1. the Sts. Direction 2. their Support 3. their Charter p. 97 491 619 866 867 It makes rich and happy p. 86 488 489 490 It is an Antidote against sin and a Cordial against sorrow p. 120 151 152 688 359 333 It is Comfort in two Respects p. 688 354 359 It is Bread and Water p. 124 126 How we are to be affected towards the Word p. 620 It is pure in many Respects 1. in it self 2. it makes the Soul pure and that 1. as 't is the appointed Instrument of the spirit 2. as 't is a proper Instrument for Purification 3. as it proposes Precepts Examples and other helps for Purity p. 857 858 It is Righteousness all Righteousness c. p. 1068 It ought to be our Meditation p. 576 It 's a Light proved from 1. the Autâ—…or 2. Instruments 3. the ends of it p. 690 691 It is our Comfort in the day of outward Trouble and inward Anguish It gives these Comforts 1. the Priviledges of the afflicted 2. the blessedness of another World acceptation with God p. 887 619 v. Commandements Believers may humbly challenge God upon his word p. 324 It may be hidden in two Respects 1. in respect of the outward Administration 2. in respect of the inward Influence and Efficacy p. 151 152 It is as good as Gods actual Performance or Deed p. 444 There are wonders in Gods word to be seen when God opens the Eye p. 112 880 881 882 What Gods opening the eyes contributes to the sight of them p. 112 Words idle words weigh heavy in Gods Ballance p. 39 Words are the Female Issue of the Soul Works the Male Issue p. 89 Works Covenants of Grace and Works wherein they agree and wherein they differ p. 906 907 908 909 Word of God upon the Soul may be mentioned before him and pleaded to him in Prayer and how p. 60 61 When God intends to work he sets Prayer on work p. 860 Work of God in what respects and sense ascribed to the Creature and why p. 751 God is always at work for us p. 340 World not our home not to be abused p. 117 It is preserved for the Elects sake p. 859 The spirit of this World p. 572 The spirit of God and the spirit of this World differ p. 478 Love of worldly things two great causes of it 1. A distrust of Gods Care 2. discontent with Gods allowance p. 255 present world p. 1089 Worship false worship severely punished p. 39 Worship of God his Interest therein p. 852 True Zeal appears for purity of Worship and against the corruption of it p. 852 Worship corrupted by Papists p. 205 206 False Worship makes men 1. subtle 2. cruel p. 739 Wounding and healing Gods Praerogative p. 511 Wrath of God They that walk closely with God are discharged from it p. 7 Y. YOkâ—… of Afflictions to be born from the youth p. 883 Young and raw Christians have much Zeal little Knowledge p. 452 Young Christians may have more true Wisdom than aged Persons p. 653 654 Young Men exhorted to beware of evil Company as the Pest and Bane of Youth p. 776 Young men not to be discouraged nor despised p. 654 655 Encouragement to Youth and to those that educate them p. 655 Youth regardless of serious work p. 52 God must be remembred in youth Reasons of it p. 52 53 Youth is tainted with sin p. 52 How a young man may cleanse his ways p. 55 Advantages of remembring God in Youth p. 397 Z. ZEal for false Worship quenches the fire of real Godliness p. 5 It is a high degree of Love It consumes the natural Spirits p. 849 Zeal great and pure becomes those that have any Affection for the ways and word of God p. 650 It is hottest in cold times p. 865 Zeal Spiritual and Carnal their differences Carnal Zeal is faulty in the 1. Cause 2. the Object 3. Measure p. 850 Zeal spiritual described 1. by its Causes 2. Object 3. Effects 4. usefulness to publick Reformation 5. use in private Christian Exercises p. 851 852 Blind Zeal a cause of Persecution p. 144 Iâ—… makes a man a prey for the Devil p. 685 Young Christians have much Zeal but little Knowledge p. 452 Zeal shews it self for purity of worship p. 852 Zeal now is less when there 's more light p. 657 Zion Mourners in Zion and Sinners in Zion p. 929 FINIS
cannot find such easie entrance when the Word is hid in our hearts and made use of pertinently 1 Ioh. 2. 14. I write to you young men because ye are strong where lies their strength and the word of God abideth in you and ye have overcome the wicked one O it is a great advantage when we have the Word not only by us but in us ingrafted in the heart when it is present with us we are more able to resist the assaults of Satan Either a man forgets the Word or hath lost his affection to it before he can be drawn to sin The Word of God when it hath gotten into the heart it will furnish us with seasonable thoughts 6. It is a great relief in troubles and afflictions Our faintings come from ignorance or our forgetfulness Heb. 12. 5. Ye have forgotten the consolation which speaketh unto you as unto children My son despise not thou the chastening of the Lord nor faint when thou art rebuked of him If we had an herb growing in our Gardens that would ease our smart what are we the better if we know it not There is no malady but what hath its remedy in the Word To have a comfort ready is a great relief 7. It makes our conference and conversation with others more gracious Mat. 12. 34. Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks When we have a great deal of hidden treasure in the soul it will get out at the tongue for there 's a quick intercourse between the heart and the tongue The Tap runs according to the Liquor wherewith the Vessel is filled come to men of an unsavoury spirit pierce them broach them give them occasion again and again for discourse and you get nothing but frothy communication from them and vain talk But now a man that hath stored his heart with the Word he is ever and anon interposing for God Like a bottle filled with wine he must have vent As the Spouses lips are said to drop as honey-combs They are ever putting forth savoury expressions in their converse with others Col. 3. 16. Let the word of God dwell in you richly teaching and admonishing one another in Psalms and Hymns and spiritual songs It will burst out presently if the Word of God dwell in your hearts Before I go to the second Reason let me answer an Objection But is not this to take from the Spirit and to give it to the Word and that to the Word not as written in Gods Book but as it is in our hearts will not this be to ascribe all to created Grace I Answer 1. Questionless it is the office of the Spirit to bring things to our remembrance and the great help of the Spirit of God is by suggesting such passages as may be of most seasonable relief to the soul in Temptations in Prayer and in Business Ioh. 14. 16. But what is given to the Scriptures and Grace is not to the wrong of the Spirit for the Scripture is of his inditeing and Grace is of his working yea we still reserve the chief honour to the Holy Ghost for he not only worketh grace but worketh by grace he not only indites the Scripture but works by it it is he that quickneth prayer and therefore it is ill trusting to our own understanding and memory for it is the Spirit that is the great remembrancer and impresseth upon the mind savoury and seasonable thoughts 2. I grant further The Children of God are subject to much forgetfulness of the truth that is impressed upon their hearts partly through the present cloud and mist which the temptation raiseth The Psalmist had truths enough to support him Psal. 73. 17. yet he saith Until I went into the Sanctuary of God I was foolish and ignorant I was as a beast before thee There is so much dullness upon the Children of God that they cannot remember seasonable thoughts as Hagar had a fountain by her yet she did not see it till God opened her eyes Gen. 21. So under the temptation all is benighted and the light that is in the understanding is obscured And partly through the little sense they have for the present of the need of the comforts which the Word propoundeth few so wise as to lay up for a dear year and partly through sloth and negligence being taken up with other things It is possible sometimes that we may be guided by the Spirit and act right meerly by the guidance of the Holy Ghost without any interposing and concurrence of our own understandings as Ioh. 12. 10. compared with the 14 and 15. They took branches of Palm-trees and went forth to meet him and cried Hosanna blessed is the King of Israel that cometh in the name of the Lord. These things understood not his Disciples at the first but when Iesus was glorified then remembred they that these things were written of him and that they had done these things unto him Mark they were guided by the Spirit to do that they knew not for the present they had only a back-look but not a fore-sight they were ignorant of what they were doing until afterward thoughts came not in their mind but only in the review Ioh. 2. 22. When he was risen from the dead his disciples remembred that he had said this unto them They did not take up the meaning of them yet they were guided aright They did not carp against Christ as the Iews did They were guided by the Spirit in a case they were wholly ignorant 3. The Holy Ghost makes use of a sanctified memory bringing Scriptures to our remembrance as we have need It is made their act because the Holy Ghost made use of their memories They remembred that it was written The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up Joh. 2. 17. They that neglect to search and hide the Word in their hearts they have not such seasonable refreshment for God works more strongly with the strongest graces there where there is the greater receptivity there 's the greater influence those that are ignorant cannot expect such help as those that have the Word dwell richly in their hearts The second Reason is Therefore should we hide the Word in our hearts because God doth so in the work of Conversion Heb. 8. 10. I will put my laws into their mind and write them in their hearts The mind is compared to tables of stone and the heart to the Ark and so this is required of us to write them upon the table of our heart Prov. 7. 3. and here I have hidden thy word in my heart How doth this follow because God doth so in conversion therefore it is our duty I answer 1 God requires what he works to shew the Creatures duty as well as the power of his own grace God is to convert and turn yet do you turn Circumcise your heart and I will circumcise Mortifie your members c. and yet If ye through the spirit do mortifie the deeds of the body
well with you for the present but matters to come are put off little cared for Amos 6. 3. 2. In Hearing do not hear slightly but hide the Word in your heart that it be not imbezilled by thy own negligence forgetfulness running into carnal distractions that it be not purloined by Satan that he may not snatch away the good seed out of thy soul. When the Word is preached there is more company present than is visible there are Angels and Devils in the Assembly When ever the Sons of God meet together Satan is present with them The Devil is present to divert the mind by wandring thoughts by raising prejudices that we may cast out the Word or by excuses delays evasions putting it off to others when we begin to have some sensibleness of our sin and danger The Devil is loth to let us go too far lest Christ get a subject into his Kingdom Oh therefore labour to get something into thy heart by every Sermon some fresh notion or consideration is given out to set you a work in the spiritual life A conscientious waiting upon God will find something every time It is sad to consider how many have heard much and laid up little or nothing at all it may be they have laid it up in their Note-books but not laid up the word in their hearts 3. For Meditation Meditate upon the Word do not study the Word in a cursory manner or content your selves with a slight taste or a little volatile affection but ponder it seriously that it may enter into your very heart Hasty and perfunctory thoughts work nothing Meat must be well chewed and digested if you would have it turn into good blood and spirits you must follow it close till it settle into some affection So much for David's practice I have hid thy word in my heart The second thing is the aim and end of it That I may not sin against thee Doct. 2. In hiding the word in our hearts there must be a right end our knowledg of it and delight in it must be directed to practice 1. We must not study the Word meerly out of curiosity that we may know what is said there as men will pry into Civil Art and Discipline so the Athenians flocked about Paul Act. 17. 18 19 20 21. so for novelty sake men may have an affection and a delight in the Word Ioh. 5. 35. Ye rejoiced in his light for a season There are certain Adulterous affections we have to the Word when it is new and fresh but when it grows stale we loath it This affection to the Word is soon spent 2. We must not hide the Word in our heart meerly that we may be able to teach others that we may make a gainful trade of it Alas a man may teach others and be himself a cast-away Look as in coyning of money an iron-stamp may impress the character and print upon a piece of gold and silver so God may use the gifts and knowledg of some men to beget faith in others and perish themselves Mat. 7. 21. We haue prophesied in thy name yet depart from me I know you not 3. This must not be our end neither not meerly for delight Largeness of knowledg brings a content with it as it is an addition to our perfection Truth is the object of our understanding and may please an unsanctified mind not meerly out of subserviency to some base and inferiour ends that we may get esteem in the world or the repute of knowing persons but as it is an elevation of the understanding Every delight in truth is not a delight in God There is a natural oblectation we have in the contemplation of any sublime truth this is meerly a delight in the work of our own faculties when the affections are terminated in bare knowledg as it is a high and mysterious truth as it is a delectation to the understanding 4. We are not meerly to study the Word for the comfortableness of it and the suitableness to the Conscience As man is a reasonable creature he will delight in knowledg and as he hath a Conscience presageous of death and judgment to come he may delight in the comfort of it Many search out Promises that do not affect precepts The stony-ground seemed to have a joy they may delight in the comfortable part of Religion but this joy comes to nothing this gladsome forward spring is no sure Prognostication of a plentiful harvest Then do we receive the word a right when we look to the holy part and mortifie our natural desires and affections Many deal with the word as Great men do with fleshly companions are willing to entertain them at their Tables to hear their Discourse because of the pleasantness of their mirth but to enter into bonds for them and discharge them from debt or better their fortunes that they will not do So many will give Christ and the Word and the comfortable part of it entertainment but they are loth to take the duty of the Gospel upon themselves Therefore it is not enough to study the word meerly that we may cherish our own persons with the comfortable part of it but we must also study the holy part of it and that which doth require our duty Let us labour to hide the word in our hearts as David did I have hid thy word in my heart that I might not sin against thee SERMON XIII PSAL. CXIX 12. Blessed art thou O Lord teach me thy statutes IN these words you have 1. A Compellation Blessed art thou O Lord. 2. A Supplication Teach me thy statutes 1. Branch The Compellation carrieth the force of an argument Because thou art blessed O Lord therefore teach me And therefore I shall open the sense of this title that is here given to God so as I may still make good the argument For the sense God may be said to be blessed objectivè or subjectivè First Objectively as he is the Object of our blessedness it is our blessedness to enjoy God Psal. 144. 15. Blessed is the people whose God is the Lord. That is our blessedness to have God for our portion As soon as we are admitted into Covenant with God we have a right to him I am thy God and we have the full consummation of it when we enter into heaven there we have the highest enjoyment of God that we are capable of We have many fruitless and unquiet cares to enjoy the creatures which are neither blessed in themselves nor can make us blessed But now God is our summum bonum our chief good The enjoyment of him is the chiefest good Still we are capable of a higher happiness until we enjoy God In other things we can neither have satisfaction nor security the creature cannot satisfie nor yet secure us in the enjoyment of it self In this sense the argument will hold good Blessed art thou O Lord that is Thou art the object of my blessedness my blessedness lyeth
soon is the edg of his bravery taken off Dan. 5. 5 6. Haman in the midst of his honours was troubled at the heart for want of Mordecai's knee Those things which seem to affect us so much cannot allay one unquiet passion certainly cannot still and pacifie the least storm of the Conscience and therefore what ever face men put upon temporal enjoyments if they cannot see Gods special love in them they want sincere joy There is many a smart lash they feel when the world hears not the stroke Prov. 14. 13. Even in laughter the heart is sorrowful and the end of that mirth is heaviness All the laughter and merriment which men seem to receive from the Creature it is but a little appearance not such as will go to the Conscience that will indeed and throughly rejoice and comfort a man and give him solid joy 3. There wants eternity An Immortal soul must have an eternal good pleasures for evermore Psal. 16. ult In this world we have but a poor changeable happiness Luk. 12. 19. 't was said to the rich fool This night thy soul shall be required of thee Thus much for the first Branch Blessed art thou O Lord. II. I come from the Compellation to the Supplication Teach me thy statutes And here observe 1 The person teaching he speaks to God Do thou O God teach 2 We may consider the person taught Teach me I that have hid the word in my heart David that was a Prophet is willing to be a Disciple Those that teach others have need that God should teach them the Prophet saith Teach me O Lord. David a grown Christian he desires more understanding of Gods will Certainly we should still follow on to know the Lord Hos. 6. 3. Heathens that only knew natural and moral things yet they saw a need of growth and the more they knew the more they discovered their ignorance and always as they grew elder they grew wiser How much more sensible would they have been of their defects in the knowledg of spiritual things if they had in a little measure been acquainted with the mysteries of godliness that pass all understanding and are so much from humane sense and above the capacities of our reason Prov. 30. 3. Agur said I neither learned wisdom nor have the knowledg of the holy There is very much yet to be learned of God and of his ways Many think they know all that can be taught them David a great Prophet a man after Gods own heart yet is earnest that God would teach him his statutes 3 The lesson or matter to be taught Thy Statutes so he calls the Word because the Doctrines of it have the force of a Law published they do unalterably bind and that the soul and conscience and therefore the Precepts Counsels and Doctrines of the Word are all called statutes The Point is Doct. If we would know Gods statutes so as to keep them we must be taught of God Here I shall enquire 1. What it is or how doth God teach us 2. The necessity of this teaching 3. The benefit and utility of it First How doth God teach us Outwardly by his Ordinance by the Ministry of man Inwardly by the inspiration and work of the Holy Ghost 1. The outward teaching is Gods teaching because it is an Ordinance which is appointed by him now both these must ever go together external and internal teaching Despise not Prophecy Quench not the Spirit If you would have any enlightning and quickning of the Spirit you must not despise Prophecy We teach you here and God blesseth Jesus Christ when he comes to teach his Disciples first he openeth the Scripture Luk. 24. 37. And then v. 45. he opened their understandings Of Lydia it is said God opened her heart in attending to the things spoken by Paul Act. 16. 14. She was attending and then God openeth her heart When the Eunuch was reading then God sends an Interpreter The outward means are necessary it is Gods teaching in part but the inward grace especially Both these must go together for it is said Ioh. 6. 45. Every man that hath heard and hath learned of the Father cometh unto me There must be a hearing of the Word and so there is a teaching from God But 2. The inward teaching which is the work of the Spirit that needs most to be opened What is that it consists in two things 1 When God infuseth light into the understanding so as we come to apprehend the things of God in a spiritual manner Psal. 36. 9. In thy light shall we see light There is no discerning spiritual things spiritually but in Gods light There may be a literal instruction which one man may give to another But in thy light only shall we see light such a lively affective knowledg as disposeth the heart for the enjoyment of God There is a seeing and a seeing in seeing Isa. 6. 10. Lest in seeing they shall see A man may see a truth rationally that doth not see it spiritually now when we have the Spirits light then in seeing we see Or as the Apostle calls it Col. 1. 6. A knowing of the grace of God in truth Since you did not only take up the report but feel it and had some experience of it in your hearts Again 2 Gods teaching it consisteth not only in enlightning the understanding but in moving and inclining the heart and the will for Gods teaching is always accompanied with drawing Ioh. 6. 44. No man cometh to me except the Father draw him which Christ proves v. 45. Because they shall be all taught of God The Spirits light is not only directive but perswasive it is effectual to alter and to change the affections and to carry them out to Christ and to his ways he works powerfully where he teacheth When the Holy Ghost was first poured out upon the Apostles there was a notable effect of it It came in the appearance of â—…ven tongues like as of fire Act. 2. 3. to shew the manner of the Spirits operation by the Ministry not only as light but as fire it is a burning and shining light that is such a light as is seasoned with zeal and love that affects the heart that burns up our corruptions And therefore you know when Christ would put forth a Divine effect in his conference with his two Disciples it is said Their hearts burned within them while he talked with them Luk. 24. 32. There 's a warmth and heat convey'd to the Soul Thus for the nature of this Teaching Secondly The necessity of this Teaching will appear in several things 1. If we consider the weakness of a natural understanding 1 Cor. 2. 14. The natural man receiveth not the thing of the spirit of God because they are spiritually discerned They must be spiritually understood There must be a cognation and proportion between the object and the faculty Divine things cannot be seen but by a Divine light and spiritual things by a
David Psa. 77. 1 c. I cryed unto God with my voice even unto God with my voice and he gave ear unto me In the day of my trouble I sought the Lord my sore ran in the night and ceased not my soul refused to be comforted I remembred God and was troubled I complained and my spirit was overwhelmed Selah Thou holdest mine eyes waking I am so troubled that I cannot speak I have considered the days of old the years of ancient time c. By the sense of Gods wrath he was even wounded to death and the sore running upon him would admit of no plaister Yea the remembrance of God was a trouble to him I remembred God and was troubled What an heavy word was that Soul-troubles are the most pressing-troubles a child of God is as a lost man in such a condition 2. In respect of the heavy weight of outward pressures Thus David fasted and lay all night upon the earth in his childs sickness 2 Sam. 12. 16 17. David therefore besought God for the child and David fasted and went in and lay all night upon the earth And the elders of his house arose and went to him to raise him up from the earth but he would not neither did he eat bread with them And when he was driven from his Palace by Absolom and was in danger of his life every moment which some Interpreters think to be the case intended in the Text when he went up the Mount of Olives bare foot going and weeping 2 Sam. 15. 30. And David went up by the ascent of Mount Olivet and wept as he went up and had his head covered and he went bare-foot and all the people that was with him covered every man his head and they went up weeping as they went Now the Reasons of this are these 1. To correct them for past sins This was the cause of David's trouble and this puts a sting into all miseries Gods children smart under their sins here in the world as well as others Prov. 11. 31. Behold the righteous shall be recompenced in the earth much more the wicked and the sinner Recompenced in the earth that is punished for his sins Compare with it 1 Pet. 4. 18. And if the righteous scarcely be saved where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear God punisheth here that he may spare for ever He giveth some remembrance of the evil and corrects his people not to complete their justification or to make more satisfaction for Gods Justice than Christ hath made yet to promote their sanctification that is to make sin bitter to them and to vindicate the glory of God that he is not partial For these reasons they are even brought to the dust by their own folly 2. To humble them and bring them low in the midst of their great enjoyments therefore he casts them down even to the dust because we cannot keep our hearts low therefore God maketh our condition low This was Paul's case 2 Cor. 1. 7 8 9. And our hope of you is stedfast knowing that as ye are partakers of the sufferings so shall ye be also of the consolation for we would not brethren have you ignorant of our trouble which came to us in Asia that we were pressed out of measure above strength insomuch that we despaired even of life but we had the sentence of death in our selves that we should not trust in our selves but in God which raiseth the dead That is not build too securely on their own sufficiencies 3. To try their graces which are never tryed to the life till we be near the point of death The sincerity of our estate and the strength of faith is not discovered upon the Throne so much as in the dust if we can depend upon God in the hardest condition 4. To awaken the spirit of prayer Out of the depths have I cryed unto thee O Lord Psal. 130. 1. Affliction puts an edge upon our desires They that are flat and careless at other times are oftenest then with God 5. To shew the more of his glory and the riches of his goodness in their recovery Psal. 71. 20 21. Thou which hast shewed me great and sore troubles shalt quicken me again and shalt bring me up again from the depths of the earth thou shalt encrease my greatness and comfort me on every side By the greater humiliation God prepareth us for the greater blessings As there are multitude of troubles to humble and try the Saints so his mercies do not come alone but with great plenty USE 1. Let us bless God that we are not put to such great trials How gentle is our exercise compared with David's case We are weak and God will not overburden us There is a great deal of the wisdom and love of God seen in the measure of the Cross and in the nature and kind of it We have no cause to say our belly cleaveth to the dust or that we are pressed above measure God giveth us only a gentle remembrance if brought upon our knees we are not brought upon our faces 2. If this should be our case do not count it strange It is an usual exercise of God's people let us therefore not be offended but approve Gods holy and wise dispensation If there be great troubles there have been great sins or there will be great comforts or for the present there are great graces As such a dispensation is a correction there is reason to approve it If you be laid in the dust have not you laid Gods honour in the dust and trampled his Laws under foot As it is a trial you have cause to approve it for it is but meet that when God hath planted grace in the heart he should prove the strength of it Therefore if you be kept so long in your heavy condition that you seem dead yet if you have faith to keep you alive and patience be exercised 't is for your greater good Rom. 5. 3. And not only so but we glory in tribulation knowing that tribulation worketh patience And as affliction is an exercise for your benefit and spiritual improvement The husbandman when he teareth and rendeth the ground up with the plow it is to make it more fruitful the longer the metal is in the fire the more pure it cometh forth nay sometimes you have your outward comforts with advantage after troubles as Job 42. 10 11 12. And the Lord turned the captivity of Iob when he prayed for his friends also the Lord gave Iob twice as much as he had before and the Lord blessed the latter end of Iob more than his beginning O! when we are fitted to enjoy comforts we shall have them plenty enough 2d Point That in such great and heavy troubles we should deal with God for help In the dust David calleth to God for quickning The reasons of this why in great troubles we should go to God for help are 1. From the inconvenience of any other course 1. If
strength that is he observes all our temptations our conflicts how weak we are and he intercedes with God night and day he stands at God's right hand to get out this strength and the Holy Ghost applies it to our heart in the Ordinances for so it is said Eph. 3. 16. To be strengthned with might by his Spirit in the inner man USE To press us to be dealing with God for this strength what shall we do 1. Be weak in your own sense and feeling The way to be strong is to be weak 2 Cor. 12. 10. When I am weak then am I strong The Bucket if we would have it fill'd with the Ocean must first be empty Saith Austin Nemo erit à Deo firmus nisi qui seipsum sentit infirmum God strengthneth those that are weak in their own feeling and sense of their own nothingness Heb. 11. 34. Out of weakness they were made strong out of weakness felt and apprehended 2. There must be a full reliance upon God's strength alone Psal. 71. 16. I will go forth in the strength of the Lord God And Eph. 6. 10. Be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might And 2 Tim. 2. 5. Be strong in the grace that is in Christ Iesus Whatever is in God and in Christ is for our use it is forth-coming for our encouragement and help We have firm grounds for this reliance the infinite power of God and the merit of Christ which is of infinite value What cannot the power of God do the strength of God is ingaged for our relief and succour 3. Use the power that you have and then it will be increased upon you The right arm is bigger than the left why because of Exercise it 's fuller of spirits and strength To him that hath shall be given Mat. 13. 12. and he shall have abundance The more we exercise grace the more we shall have of it Prov. 10. 29. The way of the Lord is strength to the upright The more we walk with God the more strength 4. Use the means for they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength Isa. 40. 31. Because God doth all O it 's the greatest engagement that can be to wait upon God in the use of means that we may draw out treasures of grace in Gods way Phil. 2. 12. Work out your salvation for it is God that worketh in you c. See that you keep not off from God why for he doth all 5. Avoid sin that lets out your strength as bleeding lets out the spirits of the body When you grieve the Spirit of Christ which is to strengthen you you cast away your strength from you Let us then wait upon God for help for when all things fail God faileth not II. I now come to the Argument Strengthen me according to thy word Gods word binds him to relieve his people in distress There are two promises one is 1 Cor. 10. 13. God will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able A good man would not over-burden his beast certainly the gracious God will not suffer temptations to lye upon us above measure Another promise is in Isa. 57. 15 16 17. To revive the spirit of the humble and to revive the heart of the contrite ones He hath promised comfort and relief to poor broken-hearted sinners you are called by name in the promise it is spoken to people in your case Again Upon such a word and promise of God is Davids prayer grounded A Prayer grounded upon a promise is like to prevail you may put an humble challenge upon God plead his Word to him It is strange fire else you put in the censer when you beg that which God never undertook to grant David often saith according to thy word Again The word of God is the only cure and relief for a fainting soul. When David was languishing away under deep sorrow then Lord thy word did bring strength 1. This is the proper cure Natural means cannot be a remedy to a spiritual distemper no more than a fine suit of apparel to a sick man or a posy of flowers to a condemned man Natural comforts carry no proportion with a spiritual disease nothing but grace pardon strength and acceptance from God can remove it They that seek to quench their sorrows in excess and merry company take a bruitish remedy for soul-diseases Oh foolish creatures that think to sport away or drink down their troubles it is as foolish a course as to think that to sew up a rent in the garment will cure a wound in their body And 2. it is an universal cure we have from the word life comfort strength It is the word that must guide us and keep us from fainting quicken us and keep us from dying This is a full remedy in conjunction with the power of God and makes the sore joyful in the midst of outward troubles Psal. 56. 10. I will rejoyce in God because of his word Lastly This word must be applied to the conscience by God himself Strengthen thou me according to thy word He goes to God that he would apply his word that it might be for his strength for we can neither apprehend nor apply it further than we receive grace from God The word is Gods instrument and worketh not without the principal Agent SERMON XXX PSALM CXIX 29. Remove from me the way of lying and grant me thy Law graciously THERE are two Parts of Christianity destructive and adstructive the destructive part consists in a removing of sin the adstructive part makes way for the Plantation of Grace there 's eschewing evil and doing good We are carried on in a forward earnestness in the way of sin but there 's a great backwardness and restraint upon our hearts as to that which is good The one is necessary to the other we must come out of the ways of sin before we can walk in the ways of God In this prayer David respects both 1. In the first he instanceth in one sin the way of lying not only lying but the way of lying as being conscious to himself of his too often sinning in this kind Now he would not have this setled into a course or way therefore he beggeth remove it the guilt the fault of it 2. As to the adstructive part for the regulating of his conversation he begs the favour and grant of the Law and that upon terms of grace David had ever the book of the Law for every King of Israel was to have it always by him and the Rabbies say written with his own hand But grant me thy law graciously that is he desires he might have it not only written by him but upon him to have it imprinted upon his heart that he might have a heart to observe and keep it That 's the blessing he begs for the Law and this is begged graciously or upon terms of grace meerly according to thine own favour and good pleasure
your selves in your father's anger when he seemeth to go cross to our prayers and hopes and gives to wicked men advantages against us Numb 12. 14. If her father had but spit in her face should she not be ashamed seven days When God doth not make good the confidence of his people rather the contrary the confidence of their enemies does as it were spit in their face then it is time to take shame to themselves and humble themselves before the Lord. SERMON XXXIV PSALM CXIX 32. I will run the way of thy Commandments when thou shalt enlarge my heart IN these words there are two parts 1. A supposition of strength or help from God When thou shalt enlarge my heart 2. A resolution of duty I will run the way of thy Commandments Where 1. observe that he resolves I will 2. The matter of the resolution the way of thy commandments 3. The manner how he would carry on this purpose intimated in the word run with all diligence and earnestness of soul. The Text will give us occasion to speak 1. Of the benefit of an enlarged heart 2. The necessary precedency of this work on God's part before there can be any serious bent or motion of heart towards God on our part 3. The subsequent resolution of the Saints to engage their hearts to live to God 4. With what earnestness alacrity and vigor of spirit this work is to be carried on I will run First Let me speak of the enlarged heart the blessing here asked of God The point from hence is Doct. Enlargement of heart is a blessing necessary for them that would keep God's Laws David is sensible of the want of it and therefore goes to God for it 1. I shall speak of the nature of this benefit 2. The necessity of it First As to the nature what this enlargement of heart is There 's a general and a particular enlargement of heart 1. The general enlargement is at regeneration or conversion to God when we are freed from the bonds of natural slavery and the curse of the Law and the power of sin to serve God cheerfully then is our heart said to be enlarged This is spoken of in Scripture Joh. 8. 36. If the son shall make you free ye shall be free indeed There are two things notable in that Scripture that this is freedom indeed and that we have it by the Son 1. That this is the truest liberty then are we free indeed How large and ample soever our condition and portion be in the world we are but slaves without this freedom As Austin said of Rome that she was Domitrix gentium captiva vitiorum the Mistriss of the Nations and a slave to Vices so vicious men are very slaves how free and large soever their condition be in the world Ioseph was sold as a bond-slave into Egypt but his Mistress that was overcome by her own lust was the true captive and Ioseph was free indeed 2. The other thing observable from this Text is That we have this liberty by Christ he purchased it for us this enlargement of heart from the captivity of sin cost dear Look as the Roman Captain said Acts 25. 28. With a great sum obtained I this freedom They were tender of the violation of this priviledg of being a Citizen of Rome a free-born Roman because it cost so dear and when the liberties of a Nation are bought with a great deal of treasure and blood no wonder that they are so dear and precious to them and that they are so willing to stand for their liberty Certainly our liberty by Christ was dearly bought One place more I shall mention Rom. 13. 2. For the law of the spirit of life in Christ Iesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death The Covenant of grace is there called the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus and the Covenant of works is called the law of sin and death To open the place The Covenant of grace that 's accompanied with the law of the spirit the Covenant of works that 's the law of the letter that only gives us the letter and the naked knowledg of our duty Lex jubet gratia juvat 't is the law of the spirit and not only so but the law of the spirit of life which is in Christ Iesus because it works from the spirit of Christ and conforms us to the life of Christ as our Original pattern Well then this law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus it makes us free This freedom though purchased by Christ yet is applied executed and accomplished by the Spirit The spirit makes us free and from what from the law of sin and death that is from the law as a Covenant of works which is therefore called a law of sin and death because it convinceth of sin and bindeth over to death it is the ministry of death to condemnation to the fallen creature Let us see what this general enlargement and freedom is from these places It consists in two things A freedom from the power and from the guilt of sin or the curse and obligation to eternal damnation The first sort of freedom from the power of sin is spoken of Rom. 6. 18. Being then made free from sin ye became the servants of righteousness There is a freedom from sin and a freedom for sin or a freedom from righteousness as it is called v. 20. When you were the servants of sin saith the Apostle you were free from righteousness To be under the dominion of sin is the greatest slavery and to be under the dominion of grace is the greatest liberty and enlargement Then is a man free from righteousness when he hath no impulsions nor inclinations of heart to that which is good when righteousness hath no command over him when he will not be held under the restraints of grace when he hath no fear to offend or care to please God But on the other side then is a man free from sin when he can thwart his lust always warring against it cutting off the provisions of the flesh when he hath no purpose and care to act his lust but it is always the bent and inclination of his heart to please God and this is our liberty and enlargement The other part of this liberty and enlargement is when we are freed from the bondage of conscience or fears of death and hell Every Covenant hath a suitable operation of the spirit attending upon it The Covenant of works hath an operation of the spirit of bondage the Covenant of grace hath an operation of the spirit of adoption I say the Covenant of works rightly thought of produceth nothing in the fallen creature but bondage or a dreadful sense of their misery it is called the spirit of bondage and every one which passeth out of that Covenant hath a feeling of it Rom. 8. 15. You have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear You had it
is a great deal of profit for God looks to the affection and of all affections to the delight 4. When this delight is not set upon priviledges but upon grace and obedience this is more acceptable to God I delight in thy ways When we set upon obedience it 's a sign we mind Gods interest more than our own comfort that 's our own interest but subjection to God and holiness that 's for his glory therefore when the heart is set upon obedience then he will give in supplies of grace USE Oh that we could say so that we take joy and pleasure in the way of his Commandments Thou hast given me delight in thy ways give me strength to keep them To corrupt nature the ways of God are burdensome but to his children the Commandments of God are not grievous we shall not then want influences of grace SERMON XL. PSALM CXIX 36. Incline my heart unto thy testimonies and not to covetousness IN the former Verses David had asked understanding and direction to know the Lord's will now he asketh an inclination of heart to do the Lord's will The understanding needs not only to be enlightned but the will to be moved and changed Man's heart is of its own accord averse from God and holiness even then when the wit is most refined and the understanding is stock'd and stor'd with high notions about it therefore David doth not only say Give me understanding but incline my heart We can be worldly of our selves but we cannot be holy and heavenly of our selves that must be asked of him who is the Father of lights from whom cometh down every good and perfect gift They that plead for the power of Nature shut out the use of prayer for if by nature we could determine our selves to that which is good there would be no need of grace and if there be no need of grace there 's no use of prayer But Austin hath said well Natura verâ confessione non falsâ defensione opus habet We need rather to confess our weakness than defend our strength Thus doth David and so will every broken-hearted Christian that hath had an experience of the inclinations of his own soul he will come to God and say Incline my heart unto thy testimonies and not to covetousness In which words there is something implied and something exprest That which is implied is a Confession that which is exprest is a Supplication That which he confesseth is the natural inclination of his heart to Worldly things and by consequence to all evil for every sin receiveth life and strength from Worldly inclinations That which he begs is that the full bent and consent of his heart may carry him out to God's testimonies Or briefly here is 1. The thing asked Incline my heart 2. The Object of this inclination exprest positively unto thy testimonies Negatively and not unto covetousness Here is the object to which and the object from which To which Incline me to thy testimonies and suffer me not to decline to Worldly objects exprest here by the lust which is most conversant about them Covetousness Let me explain them more fully Incline my heart The word implies 1. Our natural obstinacy and disobedience to God's Law for if the heart of man were naturally prone and of its own accord ready to obedience it were in vain said to God Incline my heart I but till God bend us the other way we lye averse and aukward from his Commandments As God is said here to incline us so Iohn 6. 44. he is said to draw us There is a corrupt will which hangs back and desires any thing rather than that which is right we need to be drawn and bent again like a crooked stick the other way 2. It implies Gods gracious and powerful act upon the soul whereby the heart is fixed and set to that which is good when there 's a proneness another way this is the fruit of effectual grace Now let us see when the heart is enclined and how this is brought to pass 1. When is the heart said to be inclined I answer when the habitual bent of our affections iâ—… more to holiness than to worldly things for the power of sin stands in the love of it and so doth our aptness for grace in the love of it or in the bent of the will the strength of desire and affections by which we are carryed out after it Amor mens est pondus meum eo feror quocunque ferâ—…r Our love is the weight that is upon our souls Nothing can be done well that is not done sweetly Then are we inclined when our affections have a proneness and propension to that which is good New these affections must be more to holiness than to Worldly things for by the prevalency is Grace determined if the preponderating part of the soul be for God It is not an equal poyse we are always standing between two parties there 's God and the World There 's a sensitive good drawing one way and there 's a spiritual good draws us another way Now grace prevails when the scales are cast on grace's side I say it is the habitual bent not for a pang the heart must be set to seek the Lord 1 Chron. 22. 19. Now set your heart and your soul to seek the Lord your God and the course of our endeavours the strength and stream of our souls runs out this way then is the heart said to be inclined to Gods testimonies 2. How is it brought to pass or how doth God thus reduce and frame our hearts to the obedience of his will There are two ways which God useth by the word and by his spirit by perswasion and by power they shall be taught of God and they are drawn of God Joh. 6 44. The Lord will allure Iapheâ—…h so he works by perswasion Gen. 9. 27. and then by Power Ezek. 36 26 27. I will cause you to walk in my wâ—…ys c. God tempers an irresistible strength and sweetness together fortiter pro te Domine sâ—…aviter pro me He worketh as a God therefore he works strongly and invincibly but he perswades men as men therefore he propounds reasons and arguments goes to work by way of perswasion Strongly according to his own nature Sweetly according to mans By perswasions accompanied by the secret efficacy of his own grace First He gives weighty reasons he casts in weight after weight till the scales be turned then he makes all effectual by his spirit Morally he works because God will preserve mans nature and the principles thereof therefore he doth not work by violence but by a sweet inclination alluring and speaking comfortably unto us Hos. 11. 4. I drew them with cords of a man with bands of love God knows all the wards of mans heart and what kind of keys will fit the lock therefore he suits such arguments as may work upon us and take us in our month and then really and prevailingly
Luke 11. 8. Though he will not rise and give him because he is his friend yet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because of his importunity he will rise and give him as many as he needeth And things promised being asked and at length obtained are the more valued 4. That if we yet continue our Faith and heartily believe God upon his Word it is a great encouragement in waiting for the thing promised for to believe is a Qualification There are in the Word of God Promises that we may believe and then Promises because we do believe Promises to invite Faith and Hope and then Promises because we believe in God and hope in his Word Promises for Faith and to Faith As for instance God hath promised to be a Defence unto his People Zech. 2. 5. I the Lord will be unto her a wall of fire round about her and will be the glory in the midst of her Now see how David pleadeth Psal. 57. 1. Be merciful unto me O God be merciful unto me for my soul trusteth in thee yea in the shadow of thy wings will I make my refuge until these calamities be overpast When once we believe then we have a claim Isa. 26. 3. Thou keepest him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee because he trusteth in thee Trust giveth us a fresh Claim or new Interest Psal. 86. 2. Oh thou my God save thy servant that trusteth in thee God will not disappoint a trusting Soul An ingenuous Man will not fail his Friend if he rely on him We count this the strongest Bond we lay upon another to be faithful and mindful of us I trust you that you will do this for me How much more will God do so 1. For his own Honour to shew himself faithful willing and able to succour his People in their Distresses This is the Reproch cast upon the Worshippers of Idols That they call upon those things which cannot help them nor relieve them in their Straits Iudges 10. 14. Go to the gods whom ye have chosen let them deliver you in the day of tribulation When you trust God the Honour of his Godhead lieth at stake by Trust you own him for a God Ionah 1. 5. Then the mariners were afraid and cried every man upon his God By making good your trust he sheweth himself to be a God that they do not seek to a vain help 2. With a condescension to his People Nothing goeth so near their hearts as a disappointment of their Hope in God This will mightily damp their Spirits when God spits in their Faces and seemeth to reject their Prayers Psal. 25. 2. Oh my God I trust in thee let me not be ashamed yea let none of them that wait on thee be ashamed but let them be ashamed which transgress without a cause To have Hopes fail which were invited and drawn forth by Promises is a great Temptation 3. With respect to their Enemies who will be sure to cast this in their teeth if the God in whom they trusted should not send help from his Holy place You will find God's servants often mocked for their trust Psal. 22. 18. He trusted in the Lord let him now deliver him seeing he delighted in him Christ himself was not free from the lash of profane tongues he was mocked for his dependence on his Father Mat. 27. 43. He trusted in God let him deliver him now if he will have him The World counts Faith but a Fancy now if God should deny the things promised to his People it would seem to countenance the slanders of their Enemies Wherefore do the Children of God expose themselves to difficulties and all manner of hard usages but because of their hope in God 1 Tim. 4. 10. Therefore we suffer reproch because we trust in the living God for that reason because they look for great things from God therefore God hath a great respect for them that trust in him 5. This Trust must be pleaded in Prayer 1. Because Prayer is one of the Means by which God hath decreed to fulfil his Promises and therefore we must obtain Mercies in his own appointed way God saith I will do thus and thus for you Ezek. 36. 37. But I will be enquired after by the house of Israel for this very thing God will do it but Prayer must give a lift he will be sought to Ier. 29. 11 12. I know the thoughts which I think towards you saith the Lord thoughts of peace and not of evil to give you an expected end that is such an end as your selves hope for and desire then shall ye call upon me and go and pray to me and I will hearken unto you that is you must address and set your selves seriously to this Work When the Promise is urged by the Believer it will be performed by God So when Daniel understood by the Books and Writings of the Prophets that the time was come wherein God had promised to deliver his People then he falleth a praying in a serious manner Dan. 9. 3. When God hath a mind to work then he sets the Spirit of Prayer awork for he will have all things accomplished in his own way 2. Because he hath put this Office upon his People that they are to be his Remembrancers at the Throne of Grace Isa. 62. 6. Ye that make mention of the Lord keep not silence it is in the margin Ye that are the Lords remembrancers whose Office it is to be constantly minding God and solliciting him in the behalf of his Church Publick Remembrancers are the Officers of his Church but every Christian is a private Remembrancer to put God in mind of his Promise Not that God is subject to forgetfulness as Man is who hath need of such Minders but he will be sought and sollicited for the performance of his gracious Promises We have an Advocate in Heaven but there are Remembrancers upon Earth We come as David here Remember thy word unto thy servants on which thou hast caused us to hope 6. We are the more encouraged Because God that made the Promise doth also give the Faith for he pleadeth two things the Grant of the Promise and the Gift of Faith Reasons 1. God would not deceive us Would he raise a Confidence to disappoint us in such a case we might say as the Prophet Ieremiah chap. 20. 7. Thou hast deceived me and I was deceived the words seem to intrench upon the Honour of God In the general I answer They were spoken by the Prophet in a Passion Others soften them by another Rendring and Interpretation Thou hast perswaded me and I was perswaded that is to undertake the Prophetical Office of which I was nothing forward of my self but averse thereunto yet found it more troublesom than I expected But put it with a supposition If I be deceived thou hast deceived me there is nothing inconvenient God had told him he would make him as a Brazen Wall God had raised a Faith and
the Promises and may justly lay hold upon them who are God's Servants they who apply themselves to obey his Precepts these onely can regularly apply his Promises None can lay claim to Rewarding Grace but those that are partakers of his Sanctifying Grace Clear that once that you are God's Servants and then these Promises which are generally offered are your own no less than if your Name were inserted in the Promise and written in the Bible Let us remember our Promises made to God and then desire him to remember his Promises to us The next part of the Qualification is if you be Believers and can wait and depend upon God though he seemeth to delay and forget his Promise Our eyes must wait upon the Lord until he have mercy upon us Psal. 123. 2. The benefit of some Promises droppeth like the first ripe Fruit into the mouth of the eater but others must be tarried for It is said Acts 7. 17. When the time of the promise drew nigh which God had sworn to Abraham the people grew and multiplied in Egypt The Promise is recorded Gen. 15. 5. of multiplying his seed like the stars of heaven Abraham was seventy five years old when the Promise was made an hundred years old when Isaac was born when Iacob went into Egypt they were but seventy Souls but at their coming forth they were 603950 Now if Faith wait Isa. 28. 16. He that believeth maketh not haste Lam. 3. 26. It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of God Hos. 12. 6. Keep mercy and judgment and wait on the Lord continually God delayeth because he would have us make use of Faith Real Believers are such as have ventured upon God's Word denied themselves for the Hope 's offered therein 1 Tim. 4. 10. Therefore we both labour and suffer reproch because we trust in the living God Heb. 6. 10. God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love which ye have shewed towards his name God's Servants must wait for his Promises with patience and self-denial Rom. 2. 7. To them who by patient continuance in well-doing seek for glory and honour and immortality eternal life Luke 8. 15. Those in the good ground are they which in an honest and good heart having heard the word keep it and bring forth fruit with patience 2. Then let us plead Promises let not them lie by us as a dead Stock but put them in suit and put God in remembrance When the Accomplishment is delayed it is a notable way of raising and encreasing our Confidence 2 Sam. 7. 25. And now O Lord the word that thou hast spoken concerning thy servant and his house establish it for ever and do as thou hast said So ver 28. And now O Lord thou art that God and thy words are true and thou hast promised this goodness unto thy servant So may we do with any Promise of Mercy and Grace which God hath made with his People in his Covenant SERMON LVI PSAL. CXIX 50. This is my comfort in my Affliction for thy word hath quickened me IN the former Verse the Man of God had complained of the delay of the Promise and that his Hope was so long suspended now in this Verse he sheweth what was his Support and did revive him during this delay and the sore Afflictions which befel him in the mean time The Promise comforted him before Performance came This is my comfort in my affliction thy word hath quickned me 1. Observe here The Man of God had his Afflictions for we are not exempted from Troubles but comforted in Troubles God's Promise and Hope therein may occasion us much Trouble and Persecution in the World Yet 2. This very Promise which occasioneth the Trouble is the ground of our Support for one great Benefit which we have by the Word is Comfort against Afflictions 3. This Comfort which we have by the Word is the Quickning and Life of the Soul The Life of our Soul is first received by the Word and still maintained by the same Word Iames 1. 18. Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth 1 Pet. 1. 23. Being born again not of corruptible seed but of incorruptible by the word of God which liveth and abideth for ever Doctr. That all other Comforts in Afflictions are nothing to those Comforts which we have from the Word of God David confirmeth it from Experience in his deepest Pressures and Afflictions his Soul was supported and enlivened by the Word of God The Apostle Paul Doctrinally asserts it Rom. 15. 4. Whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope The general End of Scripture is Instruction the special End is Comfort and Hope Id agit tota Scriptura ut credamus in Deum Luther The business and design of Scripture is to bring us to believe in God and to wait upon him for our Salvation to hope either for eternal Life which is the great Benefit offered in the Scriptures or those intervening Blessings which are necessary by the way and also adopted into the Covenant The Reasons are taken 1. From the Quality of those Comforts which we have from the Word of God 2. From the Provision which the Word hath made for our Comfort 3. From the Manner whereby this Comfort is received 1. From the Quality of those Comforts which we receive from the Word of God 1. It is a divine Comfort Psal. 94. 14. In the multitude of my thoughts within me thy comforts delight my soul. In all the Comforts we have it is good to consider from whence it cometh is it God's Comfort or a Fancy of our own A Comfort that is made up of our own Fancies is like a Spiders Web that is weaved out of its Bowels and is gone and swept away with the turn of a Besom But God's Comfort is more durable and lasting for then it floweth from the true Fountain of Comfort upon whose Smiles and Frowns our Happiness dependeth Now God's Comforts are such as God worketh or God alloweth take them in either sense they come in with a commanding or overpowering Efficacy upon the Soul If God exciteth it by his Spirit who is the Comforter Psal. 4. 7. Thou hast put gladness into my heart There is little warmth in a Fire of our own kindling the Holy Ghost raiseth the Heart to an higher degree of a delightful sense of the Love of God than we can do by a bare natural Act of our own Understanding Or whether it be of such Comforts as God alloweth if we have God's Covenant for our Comfort we have enough No Comfort like his Comfort In Philosophy Man speaketh to us by the Evidence of Reason in the Scripture God speaketh to us by way of Sovereign Authority In his Commands he interposeth his Power and Dominion in his Promises he impawneth his Truth And therefore Scriptural
God should onely be heavy when he displeases God but delight in all the Means that enable him to live to God 3. When we are sadned by the Evil of the present World let us make use of this remedy let us meditate on God's Statutes We shall find ease and refreshing by exercising our selves to know God in Christ. 4. To refute the vain conceit which possesseth the minds of Men that the way of Godliness is a gloomy way Assoon as a Man beginneth to think of Salvation or the change of his Life or the leaving of his Sins embracing the Service of God presently his Mind is haunted with this thought Seest thou not how those that serve God are melancholy afflicted sorrowfull never rejoyce more and wilt thou be one of them This is the Opinion of the World that they can never rejoyce nor be merry that serve God But certainly it is a vain conceit no men do more and more truly rejoyce than they which serve God Consult the Scriptures who have more leave shall I say or command to rejoyce Psal. 37. 4. Delight thy self also in the Lord and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart Phil. 4. 4. Rejoyce in the Lord always and again I say rejoyce Ask Reason who have more cause or matter to rejoyce than they that have provided against the fears or doubts of Conscience by reason of Sin what is more satisfactory to a Soul in doubts and fears than the knowledge of Pardon and Reconciliation with God For the satisfaction of the desires of Nature which carry us after Happiness who have a more powerfull Exciter of Joy than the Holy Ghost Acts 13. 52. The Disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Ghost Who more qualified with Joy than those who have a clear right to the pardon of Sin and so can see all Miseries unstinged Rom. 5. 1 2 3. Therefore being justified by Faith we have peace with God through our Lord Iesus Christ by whom also we have access by Faith into this grace wherein we stand and rejoyce in hope of the glory of God And not onely so but we glory in Tribulation also How joyfull are those that see themselves prepared for everlasting Life 2 Cor. 5. 1. For we know that if our earthly Tabernacle be dissolved we have a building of God an house not made with hands eternal in the Heavens Yea when a Christian knoweth his Duty his Way is plain before him it is a mighty satisfaction Psal. 19. 8. The Statutes of the Lord are right rejoycing the heart Look into the Lives and Examples of the Saints who have more true Joy than they The Disciples esteem the Grace of the Gospel such a great Treasure that though they suffer Persecution for it they are filled with Joy Acts 8. 8. And there was great joy in that City 1 Thess. 1. 6. Having received the Word with much affliction and joy in the Holy Ghost 2 Cor. 7. 4. I am exceeding joyfull in all our Tribulation Preachers though with great hazard they perform their Office should be joyfull Acts 20. 24. Neither count I my Life dear unto my self so that I might finish my course with joy Phil. 2. 17 18. Tea and if I be offered for the sacrifice and service of your faith I joy and rejoice with you all for the same cause also do ye joy and rejoice with me The World will reply I know not what this spiritual Consolation meaneth it seemeth hard to relinquish that which I see that which I feel that which I taste for that which I see not and it may be shall never see Answ. 1. By Concession the joy of the Saints is the joy of Faith God is unseen Christ is within the Heavens great Hopes are to come 1 Pet. 1. 8. In whom though now ye see him not yet believing ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory 2 Cor. 5. 7. For we walk by Faith not by sight 2. Thus you see that the World cannot always rejoice in those things which they take to be the proper Objects of Joy they have alternative vicissitudes now rejoice now mourn nor can it be otherwise for they rejoice in things which cannot always last if they rejoice when their Worldly comforts increase they are sad when they wither if they rejoice when their Children are born they weep when they die but a Christian hath always his Songs for he must always rejoice in the Lord who is an eternal God Phil. 4. 4. Rejoice in the Lord always in Christ who hath obtained eternal Redemption for us Heb. 9. 12. in the Promises which give an eternal Influence Psal. 119. 111. Thy testimonies have I taken as an heritage for ever for they are the rejoicing of my heart The Flesh cannot afford you any thing so delightfull as a Christian hath the Word will hold good for ever 3. We cannot altogether say that a Christian doth rejoice in that which he cannot see for all that they see is their everlasting Father's Wealth 1 Cor. 3. ult All are yours for you are Christ's and Christ is God's If they look to Heaven they can rejoice and say Glory be to thee O Lord who hast prepared this for our everlasting Dwelling-place if they look to the Earth Glory be to thee O Lord who dost not leave us destitute in the House of our Pilgrimage if they consider their Afflictions they rejoice that God is not unmindfull of poor Creatures who are beneath his Anger as well as unworthy of his Love Iob 7. 17 18. What is man that thou shouldst magnifie him and that thou shouldst set thine heart upon him and that thou shouldst visit him every morning and try him every moment That God should trouble himself about us that we may not perish with the ungodly World The same Love that sendeth them Prosperity sendeth Adversity also which they find by the seasonableness of it SERMON LXI PSAL. CXIX 55. I have remembred thy Name O Lord in the Night and have kept thy Law WE often reade and sing David's Psalms but we have little of David's Spirit A Man's Imployment is as the Constitution of his Mind is for all things work according to their Nature A man addicted to God that is to say one who hath taken God for his Happiness his Word for his Rule his Spirit for his Guide and his Promises for his Encouragement his heart will always be working towards God Day and Night in the Day he will be studying God's Word in the Night if his sleep be interrupted he will be meditating on God's Name still entertaining his Soul with God The predominant Affection will certainly set the thoughts awork The Man of God had told us in the former Verse what was his chief Imployment in the Day-time and now he telleth us how his heart wrought in the Night Night and Day he was remembring God and his Duty to him In the Day the Statutes of God were his Solace and as
are not to defraud a poor Servant nor to delay him but to make him quick payment and shall we defraud our great Creator of the debt we owe to him and put him off from day to day Use 2. To exhort us with speed to turn to the Lord and to comply with his motions Let us not put off God from day to day I shall urge it 1 as to the general case 2 as to particular Duties which are prest upon you First As to the general Case Oh go and bethink your selves how do matters stand between God and thy Soul Debate it seriously that if you have neglected God and his Salvation already you may now turn to him without delay Let me preâ—…â—…ou further 1. You can never part with Sin soon enough it is a cursed Inmate that will surely bring mischief upon the Soul that harbours it It will set its own dwelling on â—…ire If there be a moat in the Eye a thorn in the Foot we take them out without delay and is not sin a greater mischief and sooner to be looked into and parted with certainly the evil of sin is greater then all evil and hereafter the trouble will be greater therefore we can never soon enough part with it 2. Let thâ—…s move you sin must have a quick dispatch and shall not God It would defeat temptations if we would but delay them it would stop the furies of anger and suppress the motions of Lust. Augustus the Emperour advised those who were angry to repeat the Greek Alphabet meaning that he might take time to consider So for uncleanness and other sins if the Practice and Execution of many Lusts were but delayed we would not be so frequent in them as we are to the dishonour of God and scandal of Religion Prov. 7. 22. it is said of the young man enticed by the Harlot that forthwith he went after her When our Lusts are a gog all the checks of Conscience and perswasions of the World will not prevail for a little respite Now shall sin have a more ready entertainment then God Will you rush upon the practice of sin like a Horse into the battle and come on in the Service of God like a Snail Will you be so eager and passionate upon the impulsion of every Lust and so hardly be entreated by the Spirit of God and by the word of God 3. If you be not ready God is ready How ready is he on the one hand to receive you and on the other hand to punish you The one quickens us by hope and the other by fear For the consideration which works upon hope God is ready Matth. 22. 4 5. Come to the Wedding all things are ready He hath a Christ ready to receive you a Spirit ready to sanctifie and cure all your Soul distempers he hath pardoning Mercy to forgive all your sins he hath power of Grace to remedy all your distempers and will not you be ready Luke 15. 20. The Prodigal said I will go to my Father Mark his Language I will go the Father ran When we do but relent and with brokenness of heart come and lie at the feet of God Loves pace is very swift and runs to snatch us out of the fire therefore will you not be ready to cast your selves into the Armes of his Compassion Cant. 2. 8. Christ is represented as leaping upon the Mountains and skipping upon the Hills Christ thinks he can never be soon and early enough with a returning sinner to revive a poor broken hearted sinner therefore if God â—…e so ready so should you On the other side to work upon your fear if you delay God is ready to punish you The wrath of God hangs over your heads like a sharp sword by a slender thread and will you sit still and keep your place The Iudge is at the door he is ready to judge 1 Pet. 4. 2. are you ready to be judged God is ready to condemn to execute and are not you ready to implore Mercy to seek the Lords Favour ready to fall flat and beg terms of Grace in and through Christ Iesus Rahab when the Lord had by his Messengers threatned destruction to Iericho onely Rahabs house was to be safe she hanged out a scarlet thread ere the Spies were departed Ioshua 2. she did not delay till the Army came and the city was surprized When the Lord is marching against sinners with vengeance and fury you cannot come soon enough to God to prevent it Luke 14. 32. That King that had twenty thousand marching against him doth not stay till they were in his quarters but while the other is yet a great way off he sendeth an Ambassage and desireth conditions of peace God is ready to execute all his vengeance and Curses of the Law therefore while you may O seek conditions of peace You have been spared long it may be for the next sin you may pay for all A Thief that hath long escaped when he is taken at length all his villany is recompensed into his Bosome if he had not stolen the last time he had escaped God hath spared you hitherto it may be upon the next sin he will strike you and hold his hands no longer If God now strike in what a wofull case would you be 4. There was never any that came to God too soon many have come too late the foolish Virgins are an instance When they brought little Children to Christ Christ received them There are none so little but the great God can form and fashion them into a temple for himself Usually God chooseth his People from among the Youth There may be some converted in Old-age but few usually 't is in our Youth or as soon as we come to our Maturitie Reason thus I may be too late I cannot be too early let me no longer dally with God Secondly As to the particular duties which are prest upon you let me caution you and direct you I. By way of Caution 1. When you have any stirrings of heart any anxious thoughts about your Eternal condition beware you do not believe the Devil that hereafter will be a more convenient season I shall give directions suitable to the grand Enemies of our Salvation the Devil the World and the Flesh. Now do not believe the Devil This was Felix case Paul was reasoning of Justice and Temperance Graces that he was little acquainted withall and Paul quickens all by a remembrance of Judgment to come and then Felix trembled but how doth he put off this Heart-work Hereafter we shall have a more convenient season Acts 24. 25. O never will it be better with you than now when the Waters are stirred Still there is something in the sinners way when God hath any business for him When young we want Wisdom when old we want strength in the middle of business we want leisure in the midst of leisure we are corrupted and want a heart We are lazy and then every Mole-hill seems
carowsing dancing all the warnings of Parents the good counsel of Tutors and Governours the grave exhortations of Ministers and Preachers will do no good upon them they are alwayes wandring up and down from God and from themselves cannot endure a thought of God of Death of Heaven of Hell of Judgment to come but when God casts them once into some grievous disease or some great trouble they begin to come to themselves and then they that would hear nothing understand nothing despised all grave and gracious counsel given as if it did not belong to them scoffed at admonitions thought the day lost in which they had not acted some sin or other when the Cross preacheth and some grievous calamity is upon them then Conscience beginneth to work and this bringeth to remembrance all that they have heard before then they come to themselves and would fain if they could come to Christ. Sharp Affliction is a sound powerfull rouzing teacher Iob 36. 8 9. And if they be bound in fetters and be holden in cords of affliction then he sheweth them their work and their transgressions that they have exceeded Grace worketh in a powerfull but yet in a morall way congruously but forcibly and by a fit accommodation of Circumstances One place more Ier. 31. 18. Truly I have heard Ephraim bemoaning himself thus thou hast chastised me and I was chastised as a bullock unaccustomed to the Yoke turn thou me and I shall be turned for thou art the Lord my God Affliction awakeneth serious Reflections upon our wayes therefore take heed what ye doe with the Convictions that arise upon Afflictions to slight them is dangerous Nothing breedeth hardness of heart so much as the smothering of convictions Iron often heated grows the harder On the other side see they do not degenerate into despair either the raging despair which terrifieth or the sottish despair which stupifieth Ier. 18. 12. They said there is no hope but we will walk after our own devices and we will every one doe the Imagination of his evil heart The middle between both is an holy sensibleness of our condition which is a good preparation for the great duties of the Gospel The work of Conversion is at first difficult and troublesome but pass over this brunt and all things will be sweet and easie the bullock at first yoaking is most unruly and fire at the first kindling casts forth most smoak so when sin is revived it brings forth death Rom. 7. 9. For I was alive without the Law once but when the Commandment came Sin revived and I died But yet cherish the work till God speak peace upon sound terms 2. It is a great help to those that are converted already How many are reduced to a more serious lively practice of Godliness by their troubles We are rash inconsiderate unattentive to our duty but the rod maketh us cautious and diligent We follow the world not the word of God the vanities thereof take us off from minding the Promises or Precepts of the word till the affliction cometh In short there is none of us so tamed and subdued to God but that we need to be tamed more We are all for carnal liberty there is a wantonness in us We are high minded earthly minded till God come with his scourge to reclaim us he chasteneth us for our profit that we may be partakers of his holiness Heb. 12. 10. Some lust still needeth mortifying or some Grace needeth exercising Our Pride needs to be mortified or our affections to be weaned from the world The Almond Tree is made more fruitfull by driving nails into it because that letteth out a noxious gumm that hindereth its fruitfulness So when God would have you thrive more he makes you feel the sharpness of affliction You have heard Plutarch's story of Iason of Choerea that had his Imposthume let out by a casual wound There is some corruption God would let out We are apt to set up our rest here and therefore we need to be disturbed to have the world crucified to us Gal. 6. 14. that the cumber of the world may drive us to seek for rest where it is only to be found and to humble us by outward defects that we may look after inward abundance that by being poor in this world we may be rich in Faith Iames 2. 5. and having nothing in the Creature we may possess all things in God 2 Cor. 6. 10. and be inlarged inwardly as we are straitened outwardly In short that we may be oftner with God God sent a tempest after Ionah Absalom set Ioab's barley-field on fire and then he came to him 2 Sam. 14. 30. Isa. 26. 16. Lord in trouble have they visited thee they poured out a prayer when thy chastening was upon them Hosea 5. 15. In their affliction they will seek me early It were endless to run out in discourses of this nature 5. The Affliction of its self doth not work thus but as sanctified and accompanied with the Spirit of God If the Affliction of its self and by its self would doe it it would doe so alwayes but that we see by experience it doth not in its self It is an evil and a pain that is the consequent and the fruit of Sin and so breedeth Impatience Despair Murmuring and Blasphemy against God as it is a legal curse other fruit cannot be expected of it but reviving terrours of heart and repinings against the Sovereignty of God We see often the same Affliction that maketh one humble maketh another raging the same Poverty that maketh one full of dependance upon God maketh another full of shifts and evil Courses whereby to supply his want No it is understood of sanctified Crosses when Grace goeth along with them to bless them to us Ier. 31. 19. Surely after that I was turned I repented and after that I was instructed I smote upon my thigh I was ashamed yea even confounded because I did bear the reproach of my youth After God had wrought a gracious change in him by his afflicting hand and Spirit working together So Psalm 94. 12. Blessed is he whom thou chastenest and instructest out of thy Law The Rod must be expounded by the Word and both must be effectually applied by the Spirit Grace is God's immediate Creature and Production he useth subservient means and helps sometimes the Word sometimes the Rod sometimes both but neither doth any thing without his Spirit 6. This Benefit though gotten by sharp Afflictions should be owned and thankfully acknowledged as a great testimony and expression of God's Love to us So doth David to the praise of God It is a branch that belongeth to the Thanksgiving mentioned v. 65. Thou hast done well with thy Servant according to thy Word The first of this octonary We are prejudiced against the Cross out of a Self-love a mistaken Self-love we love our selves more than we love God and the ease of the Body more than the welfare of the Soul and
another thing to the Saints if they are advanced their Hearts are inlarged to God if afflicted they grow more humble watchfull serious all things work together for the worst to the Wicked if God make Saul a King Iudas an Apostle Balaam a Prophet their Preferment shall be their Ruine Human's Honour Achitophel's Wit and Herod's Applause turned to their hurt If in Prosperity they contemn God if in Adversity they deny and blaspheme him Prov. 1. 32. For the turning away of the simple shall slay them and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them As the salt Sea turneth all into salt water so a man is in the Constitution of his Soul all things are converted to that use Use 3. Is to perswade us to make this acknowledgment that Affliction is good There needs many Graces before we can thus determine 1. Faith 't is not present but it must be believed hoped and waited for 'T is not fit all should be done in a day and as early as we would in the Lord's time the Fruit will appear The Word doth not work by and by so not the Rod. Faith can see good in that in which Sense onely can find smart Phil. 1. 19. I know this shall turn to my Salvation through your prayer and the supply of the Spirit of Iesus Christ. And we know that all things shall work together for good Rom. 8. 28. Though it doth not appear yet we know 2. Love The Children of God out of their Love to God and present submission to God do count whatsoever he doth to be good Psalm 73. 1. Tet God is good to Israel though he seemeth to deale with his People hardly yet Love pronounceth the Dispensation to be good it can see a great deal of love in pain and smart and chastenings I have read once and again of such a Rabbin that when told of an Affliction would say this is good because it cometh from God 3. Spiritual Wisdome and Choice to esteem things according to their intrinsick worth an high value of Holiness profiting in Sanctification is more than enough to recompence all the trouble we are put to in learning it This will make us yield to be lessened in our worldly Comforts for the increase of spiritual Grace as Paul would cheerfully part with his Health that he might have more Experience of Christ 2 Cor. 12. 10. I will take pleasure in infirmities necessities and distresses for Christ's sake Surely the loss of outward things should trouble us the less and we should be the sooner satisfied in God's Dispensation if he will take away our earthly Comforts and make us more mindfull of that which is heavenly if by an aking Head God will give you a better Heart by the death of Friends promote the life of Grace 4. Diligence and Heedfulness 1. To observe Afflictions 2. To improve 1. To observe what falleth out from what hand it cometh to what issue it tendeth otherwise if we observe it not how can we acknowledge it give God the glory of his Wisdome and Goodness In Heaven when we shall know as we are known 't will be a great part of our lauding of God to look back on his Providence conducting us through troubles as 't is pleasant for Travellers in their Inn to discourse of the deepness and danger of the Ways and now when we rather are known than know Gal. 4. 9. 't is usefull and comfortable to take notice of God's dealing with us Oh what a deal of Wisdome Faithfulness and Truth may we see in the Conduct of his Providence Gen. 32. 10. I am not worthy of the least of all thy mercies and of all the truth which thou hast shewed unto thy Servant for with my staff I passed over this Iordan and now I am become two bands Psal. 119. 75. I know O Lord that thy Iudgments are right and that in faithfulness thou hast afflicted me What necessity of his Chastisement to prevent our Pride Security Negligence with what Wisdome was our Cross chosen how did God strike in the right Vein you were running on apace in some neglect of God till he awakened you this observation will help us to love God who is vigilant and carefull of our welfare it will allay all the hard thoughts that we have of the seeming severity of his Dispensations 2. Diligence to improve it for the bringing about of this good We must not be idle Spectatours but active under God we must more stir up our selves and exercise our selves to Godliness The Affliction of it self is a dead thing there must be help Phil. 1. 19. For I know this shall turn to my Salvation through your prayer and the supply of the Spirit of Iesus Christ 2 Cor. 1. 11. Ye also helping together by prayer for us 'T is not the nature of the Cross nor the power of inherent Grace without the actual influence of the Spirit that makes Troubles profitable We must excite our selves also for the Saints are not onely passive Objects but active Instruments of Providence We are not merely to be passive Heb. 12. 11. It yieldeth the pleasant fruit of Righteousness to them that are exercised thereby God exerciseth us with the Rod and we must exercise our selves under the Rod. We are ingaged to use all holy Means to this end searching praying rowsing up our selves learning our proper Lessons then we will come and make our acknowledgment It is good for me that I have been afflicted SERMON LXXX PSAL. CXIX 72. The Law of thy Mouth is better to me than thousands of gold and silver THESE words may be conceived as a reason of what was said in the foregoing Verse David hath told us there that it was good for him that he was afflicted because of the Benefit obtained by his Afflictions he had learned God's Statutes knew more of his Duty and had an heart to keep closer to it now this gain was more to him than his loss by Affliction for he doth not value his Happiness by his temporal Interests so much as by his thriving in Godliness all the Wealth in the World was not so much to him as the spiritual Benefit which he got by his sore Troubles For the Law of thy Mouth c. The Text is a profession of his respect to the Word a profession which containeth in it the very spirit of Godliness a speech that becometh onely such a man's mouth as David was one that is sincerely godly Many will be ready to make this profession but other things do not suit the profession of their Mouths is contradicted by the disposition of their Hearts and the course and tenour of their Lives Observe here two things 1. The things compared 2. The value and preference of the one above the other 1. The things compared on the one side there is the Law of God's Mouth on the other thousands of gold and silver 2. The value and preference of the one above the other 't is better to me 't is
it for every thing which hath passed his hand carrieth God's Signature and Mark It sheweth that it came from a Being of Infinite power and Wisdome and Goodness but Man hath his Image and Likeness stamped upon him there you may discern God's tract and footprint but here his very Face In his first moulding of him he would plainly and visibly discover himself So again when this making of Man is explained Gen. 2. 7. And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living soul. Before we read that Man was created here we see in what sort his Body was framed with great Art though of base Materials a handfull of dust did God inliven and formed into a beautifull Frame But for the Frame within he had a more excellent and perfect Soul than God gave to any other Creature by the union of both these man became a living Soul Heaven and Earth were married in his Person the dust of the Earth and an immortal Spirit which is called the breath of God were sweetly linked and joyned together with a disposition and inclination to one another the Soul to the Body and the Body to the Soul When he had raised the Walls of the Flesh and built the House of the Body with all its Rooms then he puts in a noble and divine Guest to dwell in it and both make up one Man 2. The making of Man now is the work of God as well as the making of the first Man was God's hands did not onely make and fashion Adam but David he saith Thy hands have made me and fashioned me The Body of Man is of God's framing Psal. 139. 15 16. My substance was not hid from thee when I was made in secret and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the Earth Thine eyes did see my substance yet being imperfect and in thy book all my Members were written which in continuance were fashioned when as yet there was none of them Our Bodies you see there though the Matter were propagated by our Parents yet his hands made them and fashioned them God is more our Father than our natural Parents are our Parents know not whether the Child will be male or female beautifull or deformed cannot tell the number of the Bones Muscles Veins Arteries this God appointeth and frameth with curious Artifice so that of all visible Creatures there is none in any sort equalleth Man in the curious Composition of his Body whether we look upon the beauty and majesty of his Person or take notice of the variety nature and use of his several Parts with their Composition and framing them together with a wonderfull order and correspondence one to another as if they had been described by a Model and Platform set down in a Book So secretly and curiously was the Matter framed in passing through all the changes in the Womb till it came to a perfect formation Then for the Soul God infuseth that Eccles. 12. 7. Then shall our dust return to the Earth as it was and the Spirit to God that gave it God gave the Body too but especially the Spirit because there he worketh singly and immediately therefore he is called the Father of Spirits they do not run in the Channel of carnal generation or fleshly descent Heb. 12. 9. So Zedekiah swore by the God that made his Soul So Zech. 12. He formed the spirit of man within him The Parent doth instrumentally produce Man in respect of his Body yet the Soul is from God and immediately created and infused into the Body by him and being put into that dead lump of Clay doth animate and quicken it for the most excellent Imployment 3. Man that was created by God was created to serve him He formed us from the Womb to be his Servants as well as the first Man Isa. 49. 5. Adam indeed was appointed for this use all other Creatures were made to serve God but Man especially by the design of his Creation other things ultimately and terminatively but Man immediately and nextly God made all things for himself Prov. 16. 4. and Rom. 11. 36. For of him and through him are all things to whom be glory for ever Amen Man is the Mouth of the Creation surely 't is but reason that God should have the use of all that he gave us that the Authour of Life and Being should have some glory by them that he should dwell in the House he hath set up he that made it hath most right to use it that we should glorify him with our Bodies and Souls which are his 1 Cor. 6. 20. Man is designed ingaged by greater Mercies furnished with great Abilities as at first endowed with God's Image he hath Faculties and Capacities to know and glorify his Creatour There are natural Instincts given to other things or Inclinations to those things which are convenient to their own Nature but none of them are in a capacity to know what they are and have and where they are they cannot frame a Notion of him who gave them a Being Man is the Mouth of the Creation to speak for them Psalm 145. 10. All thy works praise thee O Lord and thy Saints bless thee He was made to love and serve and glorify God The divine Image inclined him to Obedience at first 4. We are not now what God made us at first but are strangely disabled to serve him and please him Eccles. 7. 29. God made man upright but they have sought out many inventions There is man's original and his degeneration what he was once made and how far now unmade and departed from his primitive Estate his perfection by Creation and defection by Sin first made in a state of Righteousness without Sin and now in a state of Sin and Misery without Grace was created with an holy Disposition to inable and incline him to love please and obey God but now hath found out many Inventions put to his shifts Man was not contented to be at God's finding but would take his own course and hath miserably shifted ever since to patch up a sorry Happiness So Rom. 3. 23. All have sinned and are come short of the glory of God by glory of God is not meant his glorious Reward but his glorious Image Image is called glory 1 Cor. 11. 7. 'T is said of the Man That he is the image and glory of God as the Woman is the glory of the Man So compare 2 Cor. 3. 18. We beholding the glory of the Lord in a glass c. so here We are come short of the glory of God that is his glorious Image Hence it is that all our Faculties are perverted the Mind is become blind and vain the Will stubborn and perverse Conscience stupid the Affections preoccupied and intangled and we find a manifest disproportion in all our Faculties to things carnal and spiritual sinfull and holy In the Understanding there is a
asking David 1. David was a holy good man Acts 13. 22. he goes and begs Let my heart be sound The hearts of the best men are so perverted with natural corruption which is not fully abolished in any that they have need to pray for a sound heart Ephes. 4. 22. Put off the old man with his deceitful lusts The old man is not so put off but there will be many warpings and deceitful workings still and therefore David prays thus The more upright any man is the more sensible of his weakness and the more suspicious of his own hearts deceitfulness The best have lodged sin vanity and pleasures and the world in their hearts which are the Closets that should be kept intirely for the Lord. They find their purposes towards that which is good very weak their resolutions variable their inclinations to evil very strong Prov. 20. 9. Who can say my heart is clean And therefore they go to God if there be any degree of insincerity any spared sin any remainings of lust not striven against and not bewailed that he would discover it and mortifie it that they may be more stedfast being sensible of their fickleness and turning aside in the several conditions they pass thorough 2. This was the request of David who was so much in the knowledge and study of God's Law and had so often said Teach me thy statutes now make me sound in thy statutes Sound knowledge of the statutes of God and a sound purpose of heart to follow them must be joined together Affection without knowledge is not good much less knowledge without affection and practice All our knowledge will but increase our punishment Luk. 12. 48. and take away all pretences of excuse First a heart enlightned and then a heart bent David often prays for both in this Psalm so must we pray that as we have greater knowledge than others so we may have better affections than others and our hearts more upright If ye know these things happy are you if you do them John 13. 17. God's scope in giving the Law was not to make tryal of mens wits who could most sharply conceive nor of their memories who could most faithfully retain nor of their eloquence who could most neatly discourse but of their hearts who could most obediently submit to his statutes Stars were not made for sight only but influence so Man was not created to know only but to walk according to his knowledge God's Precepts are best learned when most circumspectly practised 3. This was the request of David a man afflicted opposed and persecuted compare the Text with the 78 verse Let the proud be ashamed for they have dealt perversly with me Let my heart be sound in thy statutes that I be not ashamed Above all things we should study to be sincere in our carriage and defence of a good Cause An unsound heart will not bear out but fall off to its own shame Iam. 1. 8. The Apostle telleth us that a double minded man is unstable in all his ways Between God's supplies and carnal shifts he goeth backward and forward or this way and that as occasion requireth We need truth of grace that we may be able to endure all weathers and when we are put to tryal we should be the more earnest with God for soundness of heart 3. Here is the person of whom 't is asked of God Make my heart sound in thy statutes Uprightness is the gift of God and the work of his Spirit Psal. 51. 10. Create in me a clean heart and renew a right spirit within me We are like a Pewter Vessel batter'd by the fall and till we be cast anew we cannot be right with God God worketh it in us at first and still keepeth us and guideth us by his Spirit or else we shall soon turn aside to our old bent and biass again God beginneth the work of holiness and maintaineth it against remaining corruption and outward temptations he still keepeth afoot a constant purpose and steady endeavor in the heart to walk so as may please God Men of themselves have a kind of humor towards good for a fit but to go on sincerely to the end needeth grace from above Use is To press us to look after this firm established Spirit Now to this purpose 1. Heartily resign your selves to be directed and guided by God in all things whatsoever Ezra 7. 10. He prepared his heart to seek the Lord. To do it needeth such a fixed purpose 2. Let us offer our selves to God's trial Psal. 139. 23 24. Search me O Lord and try me know my heart and know my thoughts see if there be any way of wickedness in me We must not only rest upon the testimony of our own Consciences but desire our hearts may be searched by God over and over Besides there are many ill humors mixed with our best affections which we see not and a secret approbation and indulgence we give to them We are apt ever to deal favourably with our selves and therefore desire God to pry into your most retired and reserved thoughts 3. Let us walk still as in God's eye Psal. 119. 168. I kept thy precepts and thy testimonies for all my ways are before thee Whatever praise we have with men we must see that our hearts be right with God who is Witness Approver and Judge and searcheth the heart and tryeth the reins and will not be put off with shadows God's all-seeing eye is a special means to make a man upright 4. Observe how often we step awry Jer. 17. 9. in those actions we perform How careless are we of the spiritual part we regard the outside of the duty but slightly pass over that affection that should accompany it In resistance of our corruption we rather deal with the fruit of it that it break out to our disgrace than the root of it that secretly lurketh in our hearts There is a great deal of guile of spirit in the best and therefore we had need to make strait steps to our feet Heb. 12. 13. There is some defect in matter manner or aim We are many times set awork by others yet expect wages of God 5. Let us be often and earnestly dealing with God for this sincere heart 't is called godly sincerity 2 Cor. 1. 12. why because it comes from God and carries the Soul to God again The new man is created in righteousness and true holiness after the image of God Eph. 4. 24. and hath a tendency in it to draw us to God again SERMON LXXXIX PSAL. CXIX VER 81. My soul fainteth for thy salvation but I hope in thy word ' THis Verse is wholly Narrative and consists of two Branches 1. The first clause sheweth how he stood affected to God's salvation My soul fainteth for thy salvation 2dly His Support till that Affection was satisfied but I hope in thy word Before we can make any farther progress in explaining and applying this Scripture we must first
have not always the strength of Faith and therefore faint and are ready to perish I said in my haste I am cut off Psal. 31. 22. 4. Religion itself intendereth the heart a Father's anger is no slight thing to a gracious soul. When we are afflicted and God is angry the trouble is the more grievous and it is hard to steer right between the two Rocks of slighting and fainting well then pity poor creatures under their burden and help them but censure them not 3. His Remedy God's Word there is the Paradise of delights and the onely Requies to allay the bitter sense of all our troubles why First As to the main blessings there is represented to us the true Fountain of all comfort who is God the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort 2 Cor. 1. 13. who distributeth comfort when and where and to whom he pleaseth 2dly There is discovered to us the meritorious and procuring cause who is Jesus Christ Who hath given us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace 2 Thess. 2. 16. 3dly The Spirit who is the applier of all comfort therefore called the Comforter and he giveth us peace and joy in believing Rom. 15. 13. 4thly The true instrument means or condition whereby we receive comfort and that is Faith Iohn 14. 1. 5thly The true matter of comfort and that is pardon and life 1. Pardon and Reconciliation with God Rom. 5. 10. no solid cause of rejoycing till then when reconciled to God then true peace and peace that passeth all understanding which will guard both heart and mind Phil. 4. 7. then all miseries are unstinged Solid pâ—…e of Conscience is your best support and comfort under afflictions the intrinsic evil of afflictions is then taken away Lam. 3. 39. Wherefore doth a living man complain a man for the punishment of his sins While sin remaineth unpardoned the thorn still remaineth in the sore 2. The promise of eternal life Rom. 5. 2. There is the Crown set against the Cross heavenly comforts against earthly afflictions the afflictions of God's children comparatively are light and short 2 Cor. 4. 17. This light affliction which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory Nothing should be grievous to them that know a world to come where all tears shall be wiped from our eyes and we shall enjoy fulness of joy and pleasure for evermore 6thly It sheweth us who are the Parties capable the renewed or sanctified Ps. 32. 11. Be glad in the Lord and rejoice ye righteous and shout for joy all ye that are upright in heart To all Christ's sincere faithful and obedient servants these promises are matter of abundant joy As to particular comforts concerning afflictions it is endless to instance in all but take a few instances 1. The Word of God teaches us not only how to bear them but how to improve them as it teaches us how to bear them it breedeth quietness and submission but as it teaches us how to improve them it breedeth peace and joy To bear Micah 7. 9. I will bear the indignation of the Lord because I have sinned against him until he plead my cause and execute judgment for me he will bring me forth to the light and I shall behold his righteousness To improve them Heb. 12. 11. Righteousness brings peace along with it The fruit is better than the deliverance as we get spiritual advantage by them as they promote Repentance purge out Sin bring us home to God They rid us of the matter of our trouble and bring us to the center of our rest 2. The Word teaches to depend upon God for the moderating of them and deliverance from them 1 Cor. 10. 13. Before he giveth a passage out of our pressures he vouchsafeth present support to us and will not permit his servants to be tempted beyond what they are able to bear 3. His people have most experience of God under the Cross they have a more peculiar allowance from God for sufferings than for ordinary services Paul was most strong when weak 2 Cor. 12. 9 10. The greater pressures the more sensible the divine assistance And when ordinary means fail and they are pressed above their own strength the more visible the proof of God's help When they are most apt to have jealousies of God's love they have had the highest manifestations of it never more liberty than in the house of bondage Most of God's smiles when all things seem to frown upon them In short have had more understanding not only of God's Word but his Love 4. God's governing all things for the benefit of his people Rom 8. 28. And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God sure then afflictions Now they submitting and being exercised under sharp dispensations may find it verified to them many things seem for our hurt intendedly many thought so by our selves but God knoweth how to bring good out of them Cant. 4. 16. 4. David saith my delights They that seek their solace and delight in the Word shall find it there It is an excellent frame of heart to be satisfied with the comforts which the Word offereth every one cannot be thus affected to raise this delight 1. Faith is necessary for the comforts of the Word are received and improved by Faith unless we expect the sure accomplishment of God's promises how can we be supported by them Psal. 27. 13. I had fainted unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living That is without a full assent to the promises which God had made him of his Restauration for he had particular assurance of the Kingdom as we have of the Kingdom of Heaven so for the consent as well as assent to take the happiness contained in the promises as our whole felicity Psal. 119. 111. Thy testimonies have I taken as an heritage for ever they are the rejoicing of my heart There is heritage and portion rich enough in God's promises and this breedeth joy in all afflictions 2. Meditation is necessary for thereby the sweetness of the Word is perceived and tasted and the promises laid before us it is the fruit of delight Psal. 1. 2. But his delight is in the law of the Lord and in his law doth he meditate day and night And it is the cause of it Psal. 104. 34. My meditation of him shall be sweet I will be glad in the Lord. They who delight in a thing will often view it and consider it and thereby their delight is increased the most lively truths work not on us for want of serious consideration 3. There must be Mortification and Self-denial or prizing spiritual Favors before temporal Benefits The Cross will not be grievous to a mortified spirit when they compare their gain with their loss 2 Cor. 4. 16. To others we speak in vain whose hearts are set upon worldly advantages but they
me in thy way O! when the children of God let loose their minds to vanity and take immoderate liberty in the delights of the flesh there 's a deadness comes upon them for therefore he goes to the cause Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity Immoderate liberty in earthly things or in gratifying the flesh brings on a deadness upon the heart The Spirit withdraws when the soul is taken off from other comforts and is more addicted to vain pleasures Iude v. 19. Sensual not having the Spirit As we are enlarged to the flesh we are straitned to the Spirit As sensuality encreaseth so the life and vitality of grace decays II. Secondly In such Cases the Word of God is the onely means to quicken us Why the Word For two Reasons 1. Because the Word contains the most quickning considerations and the affections are wrought upon by serious and ponderous thoughts for there God interposeth in the way of the highest authority straitly charging and commanding us under pain of his displeasure and there he reasons with us again in the most potent and strong way of Argumentation from the excellency of his commands their suitableness to us as we are reasonable creatures from his great love to us in Christ whom he hath given to dye for us from the danger if we refuse him which is no less than everlasting torment from the benefit and happiness in complying with his motions which is no less than eternal and compleat blessedness both for our bodies and souls and all this is bound upon us by a strict day of impartial accounts O! what a company of quickning considerations are there to set us a work with life vigor and seriousness when we are to answer for our neglects or else to receive the reward of our diligence now what will quicken us if this will not If the high and glorious authority of the supreme Lawgiver awe us not if the reasonableness of God's commands invite us not if the wonderful love of God in Christ constrain us not if the joys of Heaven do not allure us and the horrors of everlasting darkness do not preserve upon us a lively sense of our duty what will work upon us if this do not and gain us to a constant diligent care and serious preparation for our own happiness and salvation Out of what Rock was the heart of man hewen that all this shall be brought to him in the most persuasive way as it is in the Word of God and will not work upon him Again If the deadness should arise from our negligence in our duty the Word of God how powerfully doth it quicken us But if the deadness should arise from sorrow and discomfort is not the Word as powerful to raise and quicken the soul to a delight in God as to inforce our duty What puts a damp upon us Is it fury of men we have a living God to trust to who will remain when they are gone who will pardon our sins help us in all our straits who will lay upon us no more than we are able to bear who will never leave us utterly destitute but will sanctifie all and make all work together for the best for our everlasting salvation and finally bring us into his glorious presence that we may live for ever with him Here 's comfort enough whatever our heaviness be such a powerful God to stand by us in all our troubles and make all work for good that at length we may be brought home to God If this Word did but dwell richly in our souls it would keep us fresh and lively and we need not fear Man or Devil Col. 3. 16. Again 1 Iohn 2. 14. The Word of God abideth in you and ye have overcome the wicked one We need fear nothing for whoever trouble us they are something under God Whatever is our misery and whatever befalls us it is something less than Hell which we have escaped by Christ and will all be made up in Heaven The first sight of God and the first glimpse of everlasting glory will recompence all the sorrows of the present life and as soon as we step into Heaven all shall be forgotten In short God's particular Providence Fatherly love and care the example of Christ the promise of the comforting Spirit the hopes of Glory should revive us in all our languishings So that if deadness comes from backwardness and slowness in our duty in the Word there are most quickning considerations or if from troubles we have enough in God Christ the Covenant the promise of eternal life to support us This is the first Reason the Word of God is the onely means to comfort us because it contains proper quickning considerations that may keep life and vigor in us if either carnal distemper invade the heart or worldly sorrow and fear which is apt to perplex us 2. The quickning Spirit delights to work by this means The ordinary Chariot that carrieth the influences of Grace is the Word of Grace The Spirit that speaks in the Word speaks his own lively comforts to us Alas they are but cold comforts we can find elsewhere The Spirit of God rides most triumphantly in his own Chariot The Word and the Spirit are often associated to shew they go together The Word goes with the Spirit Isa. 59. 21. My Spirit that is upon thee and my words which I have put in thy mouth shall not depart c. Isa. 30. 20. When God promiseth Their eyes shall see their Teachers it is promised also They should hear a voice behind them saying This is the way God would afford the Word and Spirit in times of their affliction The Spirit works still in concomitancy with the Word that it may the better be known to be a Revelation from God If God will set up a Word and Revelation of his mind distinct from the light of nature it is fit it should be owned and that 's done by a concomitancy of his grace and powerful operations of his Spirit that goes along with his Word Iohn 17. 17. Sanctifie them by thy truth thy Word is truth We find the Word to be truth because it 's associated and accompanied with the operations of the Spirit 1 Pet. 1. 22. Ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit The Spirit still goes along with the truth of the Gospel and with God's Word His Word 't is the Sword of the Spirit God will not bless any other Doctrine so much as the Word to quicken revive and comfort the soul and therefore here we should busie our selves for it contains the surest grounds of Comfort and the Spirit is associated with it and goes along with it to bless it to our souls III. Thirdly Though the Word be the means yet the benefit comes from God For with them thou hast quickned me Life comes from the fountain of life The Gospel is a sovereign Plaister but it is God's hand that must apply it and
Law but the doctrine of the Gospel As if he had said Stick to that Doctrine where you have been quickned comforted revived and your hearts setled for God hath owned that doctrine He appeals to their own conscience and to their own known experience that they should not quit the doctrine of Faith but prize and keep close to it for surely that which hath been a means of begetting grace in our souls that should be highly prized by us If God hath wrought grace and any comfort and peace stick there and own God there and be not easily moved from thence Another Apostle reasons Iam. 1. 18 19. God hath begotten us by the word of truth wherefore be swift to hear that is O! do not neglect hearing take heed of forsaking or neglecting the Word for then you go against your own known experience you know here you had your life quickning comfort strength and will you be turned off from this for many times a Seducer may turn off a Believer from the Word which hath given him his first knowledge of Christ. There are three Causes which carry Saints to the Word and other Ordinances viz. Necessity Natural Appetite and inward Inclination and Experience Necessity they cannot live without the Word Natural Appetite and inward Inclination they have hearts suited to this work the Spirit which wrought in the heart hath put a nature in them sutable to the work And Experience they have found benefit by it These are the three grand Causes of respect to the Word and they are all implied or exprest in that 1 Pet. 2. 2. As new born Babes desire the sincere milk of the Word there 's natural appetite for the Word we have them come as new born Babes and there 's necessity you cannot live nor keep nor increase what you have unless you keep to the Word and there 's Experience if so be you have tasted you have had powerful impressions and quicknings by this Word We should engage our hearts upon experience the comfort life and light that we have had by the Word of God 3d Reason Our own spiritual Estate will sooner be discerned by these Experiences the comfort and quickning received from the Word in the way of duty for experience worketh hope Rom. 5. 4. If your experiences be observed and regarded this works a hopeful dependance upon God for everlasting glory your evidences will be more ready and sooner come to hand The motions of our souls are various and through corruption very confused and dark and this is that which makes it so difficult upon actual search to dâ—…cern how it stands between us and God it 's for want of observation But now if there be constant observation of what passeth between us and God how he hath quickned comforted and owned us in our attendance upon him and what he hath done to bring on our souls in the way of life these will make up an evidence and will abundantly conduce to the quickning and comforting of our hearts Use I. For Information It shews us 1. The Reason why so many neglect and contemn God's Word because they never gâ—… benefit by it they find no life in it therefore no delight in it Those that are quickned 〈◊〉 knowledge the mercy and improve it they esteem the Word and have a greater câ—…science of their duty It is not enough to find truth in truth not to be able to contradâ—… it but you must find life then we will prize and esteem it when it hath been lively in its operations to our souls 2. It shews the Reason why so many forget the Word because they are not quickned You would remember it by a good token if there were a powerful impression left upon your souls and the reason is because you do not meditate upon it that you may receive this lively influence of the Spirit For a Sermon would not be forgotten if it had left any lively impression upon your souls 3. If we want quickning we must go to God for it and God works powerfully by the influence of his grace and so he quickens us by his Spirit and he works morally by the Word both by the Promises and Threatnings thereof and so if you would be quickned you must use the means attend upon Reading and Preaching and meditating upon the Word As he works powerfully with respect to himself so morally by reasonings Use II. By way of Reflection upon our selves Have we had any of these Experiences David found life in God's Word therefore resolves never to forego it or forget it Therefore what experience have you had of the Word of God surely at least at first conversion there was the work of Faith and Repentance at first you will have this experience How were you brought home to God what have you had no quickning from the Word of God Case But here 's a Case of Conscience Doth every one know their Conversion or way of their own Conversion Christians are usually sensible of this first work There is so much bitter sorrow and afterwards so much rejoycing of hope which doth accompany that surely this should not be strange But though you have not been so wary to mark God's dealings with you and the particular quicknings of your souls yet at least when the Lord raised you out of your security and brought you home to himself you should have remembred it 1 Thess. 1. 9. They themselves shew of us what manner of entring we had unto you The entrance usually is known though afterward the work be carried on with less observation Growth is not so sensible as the first change God's first work is most powerful meets with greater opposition and so leaves a greater feeling upon us and therefore it were strange if we were brought home to Christ and no way privy and conscious to the way of it as if all were done in our sleep I say to think so were to give security a soft Pillow to rest on And therefore what quicknings had you then Can you say Well I shall never forget this happy season and occasion when God first awakened me to look after himself Many of God's Children cannot trace the particular Footsteps of their Conversion and mark out all the Stages of Christ's Journey and approach to their Souls 〈◊〉 are not alike thus troubled But yet that men may not please themselves with the 〈◊〉 position of imaginary grace wrought in them without their privity and knowledge let â—…e speak to this grand Case this manner of entrance of Christ into our souls how we are quickned from the dead and made living 1. None are converted but are first convinced of their danger and evil estate God's first work is upon their understandings Ier. 31. 19. After I was instructed I smote upon the thigh c. There is some light breaks in upon the Soul which sets them seriously a considering What am I Whither am I going What will become of me And Rom. 7. 9. When the
mind of man is restless and cannot lie idle therefore it is good to set it a work upon holy things It will be working upon somewhat and if you do not feed it with holy thoughts what then Alll the Imaginations of the heart will be evil only evil and that continually Gen. 6. 5. These are the natural products and births of our spirits And Matth. 15. 19. Out of the heart proceeds evil thoughts c. When the heart is left to run loose then we shall go musing of Vanity and sin therefore by frequent meditation this evil is prevented because the mind is preoccupied and possest already by better things nay the mind is seasoned and vain and carnal thoughts grow distastful to us when the heart is stored with good matter 2. The more these thoughts abide with us the more the heart is seasoned and fitted for all worldly comforts and affairs It is hard to touch pitch and not be defiled to go up and down with a serious heart in the midst of such temptations Nothing makes you awful and serious so much as enuring your minds with holy thoughts so that you may go about wordly businesses in a heavenly manner God's Children are sensible of this therefore they make it their practice to begin the day with God Psal. 139. 18. When I awake I am still with thee As soon as they are awake they are seasoning their minds with somewhat of God And they not only begin with God but take God along with them in all their comfort and business Prov. 23. 17. They are in the fear of the Lord all the day long Why do vain thoughts haunt us in duty because it is our use to be vainly occupied A carnal man goes about heavenly business with an earthly mind and a godly man goes about earthly business with a heavenly mind A carnal man's thoughts are so used to these things that he cannot take them off but a Godly man hath enured his mind to better thoughts 3. Thoughts will enflame and enkindle your affections after heavenly things It is beating the stèel upon the flint makes the sparks fly out So by serious inculcative thoughts we beat out affections these are the bellows to blow up the coals it is a very deadning thing to be always musing on vanity Cant. 1. 3. Thy name is as ointment poured forth therefore do the Virgins love thee When a box is broken and the ointment poured out when the name of God is taken in by serious thoughts that stirs up affection 4. By holy thoughts we do most resemble the purity and simplicity of God We do not resemble God so much by speech and course of our actions as we do by our serious and holy thoughts for his spiritual nature and being is best exprest by these operations of our own Spirits You can conceive of God as a spirit always beholding himself and loving himself and so you come nearer as to the being of God the more your thoughts are exercised and drawn out after holy things 5. By these holy meditations the soul is present with God and can solace it self with him The Apostle saith We are absent from him in the Body but present with him by the spirit present with him by the workings of our thoughts This is the way to get into the Company of the spirit to be with him Psal. 139. 18. How with him By our thoughts and by serious calling him to mind God is not far from us but we are far from him God is not far from us in the effects of his Power and goodness but we are far from God because our thoughts are so seldom set a work upon him This is the way to solace our selves with God to be much in these holy things SERMON CIII PSAL. CXIX VER 98. Thou through thy Commandments hast made me wiser than mine enemies for they are ever with me IN the former Verse you shall find the Man of God had exprest his affections to the VVord O how I love thy Law Now he renders the reason of his great affection because he got wisdom thereby a benefit of great value as being the perfection of the reasonable nature and a benefit highly esteemed in the world Those which care not for the reality of wisdom yet affect a reputation of it Iob 11. 12. Vain man would be accounted wise though he be born like the wild asses colt Though he be rude and brutish yet he would fain be accounted wise Knowledge was the great bait laid for our first Parents and so much of that desire is still left with us that we had rather be accounted wicked than weak and will sooner entitle our selves to the guilt of a vice in morals than own any weakness in intellectuals no man would be accounted a Fool. VVell then David's a ffection is justified he might well say O how I love thy law because he got wisdom thereby and such wisdom as carried him through all his trouble though he had to do with crafty Adversaries as Doeg Achitophel and others that excell'd for worldly policy yet O how I love thy Law For through thy Commandments c. In which words you have 1 The Benefit gotten by the VVord Wisdom 2 The Original Author of this Benefit Thou 3 The Means Through thy Commandments 4 The Benefit amplified by comparing it with the wisdom and craft of his Enemies the Politicians of Saul's Court men advanced for their great wisdom and subtilty Thou hast made me wiser than mine enemies 5 The Manner how he came to obtain this Benefit For they are ever with me Doct. That God through his Commands doth make his People wiser than their Enemies It is but David's Experience resolved into a Proposition I shall 1. Illustrate the Point by explaining the circumstances of it 2. Then prosecute it I. First The Benefit obtain'd is Wisdom Mark 1. It is not Craft or Wisdom to do evil that 's to be learned in the Devil's School but Divine wisdom such as is gotten by study and obedience of God's Laws Gen. 3. 1. The Serpent was the subtilest of all the beasts in the field Satan's Instruments are very acute in mischief wise to do evil but to do good have no knowledge Jer. 4. 22. Cunning enough in a way of sin but to seek in every point of duty your souls must not enter into their secrets This wisdom should rather be unlearned better be Fools and Bunglers in a way of sin than wise to do evil 1 Cor. 14. 22. Brethren in malice be ye children but in understanding be ye men And Rom. 16. 19. I would have you wise unto that which is good and simple concerning evil Simplicity here is the best wisdom 2. It is not worldly Policy or a dexterous sagacity in and about the concernments of this life There are some which have the spirit of the world 1 Cor. 2. 12. And a genius or disposition of soul which wholly carrieth them out to riches
his mouth and walk in the way that is pointed out by his Word and Spirit you shall have enough to direct you in all your ways 2. It doth warn us of all our dangers It doth not only in the general call upon us to watch Mat. 13. 37. and walk circumspectly Eph. 5. 15. but it discovers all those deceits particularly whereby we may be surprized diverted and turned out of the way There are snares in Prosperity snares in Adversity Temptations you meet with in praying trading eating drinking in your publick undertakings and in your private converse it shews your danger in all your ways before you feel the smart of them therefore give up your selves to God's direction reading hearing meditating believing and practising read hear it often then the deceits of Satan will be laid open and the snares of your own hearts Christians an exact Rule is of little use if you do not consult it Gal. 6. 16. Peace and mercy be upon all them that walk according to this Rule That order their conversations exactly the word signifies that try their work as a Carpenter doth by his square they examine their actions by the Word of God what they are now a doing therefore consult with it often then meditate of it ponder it seriously 2 Tim. 2. 7. Consider what I say and the Lord give thee understanding in all things If we would have understanding by the Word there must be consideration Man hath a discursive faculty to debate things with himself Why this is my duty what would become of me if I slep out of God's way here 's danger and a snare What if I should run into it now it is laid before me And then believe it surely Heb. 4. 2. The Word profited not not being mixed with faith in them that heard it Believe God upon his Word without making tryal You hear much of living by sense and by saith living by faith is when we bear up upon the bare Word of God and encourage our selves in the Lord but living by sense is a trying whether it be so or no as they that will not believe Hell shall feel Hell and they that will not believe the Word of God shall smart for it Heb 11. 7. Noah being warned of God of things not seen as yet moved with fear prepared an Ark. It may be there were no preparations to the accomplishment of the Curse and Judgment the Word threatned it 's a thing not seen yet he prepared an Ark. When a man is walking in an unjust course all things prosper for awhile the misery the Word threatens is unseen Ay but if you would grow wiser by the Word than men can by Experience you must look to the end of things Psal. 73. 17. I went into the sanctuary of God then understood I their end And then practise it diligently A young Practiser hath more understanding than an ancient Notionallist Psal. 111. 10. A good understanding have all they that do his commandments It is not they that are able to speak of things and savor what the Word requires but they that do what they hear and discourse of Gregory saith We know no more than we practise and we practise as we know these two always go together The Word doth us no good unless there be a ready obedience therefore this is wisdom when we give up our selves to God's direction whatever it cost us in the world Doct. 2. That young ones may have many times more of this wisdom than those that are ancient Divers instances there are Ioseph was very young sold into Egypt about 17 years of age and when he was in Egypt Psal. 105. 22. He taught his Senators wisdom speaking of the Senators of Egypt With how much modesty did he carry himself when his Mistriss laid that snare Isaac was young and permitted himself to be offered to God as a Sacrifice Samuel was wise betimes 1 Sam. 2. 26. It is said The child Samuel grew on and was in favor both with the Lord and also with men From his Infancy he was dedicated to God and God gives him wisdom to walk so that he was in favor with God and men yea God reveals himself to Samuel when he did not to Eli. David when he was but 15 years of age fought with the Lion and Bear and somewhile after that with Goliah when he was a ruddy youth Iosiah when he was but eight years old administred the Kingdom before he was twelve sets upon serious Reformation Ieremiah was sanctified from the womb Ier. 1. 5. And Iohn the Baptist leapt in his Mother's womb Luke 1. 35. In the 32d of Iâ—…b the Ancients Iob's Friends are spoken of pleading their Cause wise young Elihu brings wiser words and better arguments than those that came to comfort Iob. Solomon asked wisdom of God when he was young Daniel and his Companions those four children as they are called Dan. 1. 17 18. it is said The Lord filled them with wisdom above all the ancient Chaldeans And Timothy the Apostle speaks of his youth and bids him flee youthful lusts he was young yet very knowing and set over the Church of God Our Lord Iesus at 12 years old puzled the Doctors In Ecclesiastical Stories we read of one at 15 years of age dyed with great constancy for Religion in the midst of sundry tortures Ignatius pleads the cause of the Bishop when he was but a very youth but a man powerful in doctrine and of great wisdom and therefore he saith He would have them not look to his appearing youth but to the age of his mind to his wisdom before God And he saith There are many that have nothing to shew for their age but wrinckles and gray hairs So there are many young ones in whom there is an excellent spirit and in all Ages there are instances given of youth of whom it may be said That they are wise beyond their years For the Reasons why many times young ones may have more wisdom than those that are aged God doth so 1. That he might shew the freedom and sovereignty of his grace He is not bound to years nor to the ordinary course of nature but can work according to his own pleasure and give a greater measure of knowledge and understanding to those that are young and otherwise green than he will to those that are of great age and more experience in the world You have this reason rendred Iob 32. 7 8 9. I said days should speak and multitude of years should teach wisdom There 's the ordinary course But there is a spirit in man and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding Great men are not always wise neither do the aged understand judgment Though all men have reason and a spirit yet the Spirit of God is a wind that blows where he lists Those that exceed others in time may come behind them in grace He gives a greater measure many times of grace and knowledge to shew his
2. There are certain things that cannot be discerned by external senses yet a Christian may have a feeling of them by internal sense 3. The outward senses sometimes set the inward senses awork 1. Because in those things which are liable to external sense a man may have an outward sense of them when he hath not an inward as in Seeing Tasting Touching In Seeing Deut. 29. 2. compar'd with ver 4. Ye have seen all that the Lord did before your eyes in the land of Egypt and yet the Lord hath not given you an heart to perceive and eyes to see and ears to hear unto this day They saw yet had not an heart to see they saw those wonders with the eyes of their body they had a sense outward and natural but not a sense inward and spiritual So for Taste There is a Taste of God's goodness in the creature all taste it by their outward senses Psal. 145. 9. The Lord is good to all and his tender mercies are over all his works The wicked are not excepted from this taste for the creatures are as useful for the preservation of their lives as the lives of others They do not mind God's love in it and so do rather taste the creature than God's goodness in the creature but the child of God tasteth his love therein The Fly finds no Honey in the Flower but the Bee doth A fleshly â—…alate relisheth only the gross pleasure of the creature not that refined delight which a spiritual Palate hath who hath a double sweetness it doth not only receive the creature for its natural use but it tasts God and feels the love of God in the conscience as well as the warmth of the creature in his bowels So for Feeling Ier. 3. 25. We lie down in our shame and our confusion covereth us for we have sinned against the Lord our God Men may feel the blows of his Providence and be sensible of the natural inconvenience yet they have not a spiritual feeling so as to be affected with God's displeasure and have a kindly impression left upon the soul that may make them return to God 2. It differs from the outward senses because they can by a spiritual sense discern that which cannot be discerned by the outward sense as in that place Heb. 11. 27. By faith Moses saw him that was invisible See the invisible God and are as much affected with his eye and presence as if he were before the eyes of the body as others are awed by the presence of a worldly Potentate this is matter of internal sense So for Taste they have meat which the world knows not of invisible comforts Iohn 4. 37. They have hidden Manna to feed upon and are as deeply affected with a sense of God's love and hopes of eternal life as others are with all outward dainties Then as to Feeling many things the outward sense cannot discern sometimes they feel spiritual agonies heart-breakings when all is well and sound without a man would wonder what they should be troubled about that abound in wealth and all worldly comforts and accommodations they have an inward feeling they feel that which worldly men feel not when they are afflicted in their spirits carnal comforts can work nothing upon them when they are afflicted outwardly spiritual comforts ease their heart And as they feel soul-agonies and soul-comforts so they feel the operations of the spiritual life they have a feeling of the power of the Spirit working in them they live and know that they live Now no man knows that he lives but by sense therefore if a Child of God knows he lives he hath internal sense as well as external We know we live naturally by natural sense and we know we live spiritually by spiritual sense Gal. 2. 20. I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me He lived and knew that he lived they have a life which they feel within themselves the operations and motions of the spiritual life they feel its impulsions to duty its abhorrencies from sin tendency of soul to God and spiritual supports and they feel the stirrings of the old nature workings of heart towards sin and vanity which the outward senses cannot discover 3. The outward senses sometimes set the inward senses a work The sweetness of those good things which are liable to sense put us in mind of the sweetness of better things as the Prodigal's Husks put him in mind of the Bread in his Father's House or as the Priests of Mercury among the Heathen when they were eating Figs they were to cry Truth is sweet because the god whom they worshipped was supposed to be the inventer of Arts and the discoverer of Truth So Christians when by the outward taste they find any thing sweet the inward sense is set a work and they have a more lively feeling of spiritual comforts as David Honey is sweet but the Word of God was sweeter than honey to him or the honey-comb Thus Christ when he was eating Bread Blessed is he that shall eat bread in the kingdom of God Luk. 14. 15. and they that have Christ's Spirit they act suitably 2 This sense differs from a bare and simple act of the understanding why for a man may know things that he doth not feel Simple apprehension is one thing and an impression another An apprehension of the sharpness of pain is not a feeling of the sharpness of pain Jesus Christ had a full apprehension of his sufferings all his life-long but felt them not until his agonies therefore he said Iohn 12. 27. Now is my soul troubled and what shall I say We have Notions of good and evil when we neither taste the one nor the other It is one thing to know sin to be the greatest evil and another thing to feel it to be so to know the excellency of Christ's love and to taste the sweetness of it this doth not only constitute a difference between a renewed and carnal man but sometimes between a renewed man and himself 1. Between renewed men and carnal men they know the same truths yet have not the same affections A carnal man may talk of truths according to godliness and may dispute of them and hold opinions about them but doth not taste them so he does but know the grace of God in conceit not in truth and reality as the expression is Col. 1. 6. As a man only that hath read of Honey may have a fancy and imagination of the sweetness of it but he that tasts it knows it in truth and in effect they know the grace of God and the happiness of being in communion with God by the light of nature in conceit but not in reality but the other they taste it If so be you have tasted that the Lord is gracious 1 Pet. 2. 3. There 's an impression of sweetness left upon the soul and real experience of the goodness of God in Christ so as to make them affect him with all
Herod enquired after the place where Jesus was born not to adore him but to kill him Mat. 2. 8. Our great Rule is Iohn 17. 17. Sanctifie them by thy truth thy Word is truth When you come to study the Scriptures to be the better for them and not to cavil then you are in the way to find profit from them 4. Some come to the Word leavened with some carnal affections and so their hearts are blinded by their lusts and passion 2 Cor. 4. 3 4. If our Gospel be hid it is hid to them that are lost In whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not There is evidence enough in the truth but their hearts are wedded to their sins and so cannot see it they are ambitious and seek after honour and worldly greatness and the whole bent and scope of the Scripture being against their design they can never have a perfect understanding of it their hearts are full of Avarice Earthly-mindedness and some other beloved sin that they cherish which doth defile all that they touch even the very Word of God Hagg. 2. 13. A man that was unclean by a dead body whatsoever he touched was also unclean even holy things And Tit. 1. 15. To the impure all things are impure And so by the just judgment of God are blinded and hardned in their own prejudices for the light they have hindreth them from discerning the truth 5. Some content themselves with some superficial apprehensions and do not dig deep in the Mines of knowledge and therefore no wonder they mistake in many things Prov. 2. 4 5. If thou seekest her as silver and searchest for her as for hid treasures Then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God No excellent things are to be had without pain and industry and search certainly the knowledge of God's Word must cost us great pains 6. Where men are right in the main and give diligence to know God's mind there will be mistakes in lesser things All have not parts alike and gifts and graces alike and therefore there is some variety of opinions and interpretations of Scripture among the godly wise Every man is not so happy to be so well studied nor hath not that ability to understand nor so furnished with acquired helps of Arts and Tongues nor such a degree of the Spirit There is a difference in age growth and experience among good men some are Babes and some grown in years in Christianity Phil. 3. 15. Grace is bewrayed in knowledge as well as in holiness Object 2. If there be such a Light in the Scriptures what need is there of the Spirit Answ. I answer The Scriptures are the means of Light the Spirit is the Author of Light both together enlighten the eyes Psal. 19. 8. These two must be taken in conjunction not in exclusion To pretend to the Spirit and neglect the Scriptures makes way for Error and fond conceits Isa. 8. 20. To the law and to the testimony if they speak not according to this Word it is because there is no light in them Light is not contrary to Light so to study the Scriptures and neglect the Spirit who searcheth out the deep things of God 1 Cor. 2. 11. leaveth us in darkness about God's mind The object to be known is fixt in the Scriptures but the faculty that knoweth must be enlightned by the Spirit There is a literal understanding of the Scriptures and a spiritual understanding 1 Cor. 2. 14. Now as to the spiritual understanding of them there needs the Spirit for the natural man cannot understand the things of the Spirit so that here is a fair correspondence between the Word and the Spirit Object 3. If the Scriptures be so plain what need the Ministry I answer Answ. 1. It is God's institution and we must submit to it though we could see no reason for it That it is God's institution it is plain for he hath set some in the Church not only Apostles and Prophets but Pastors and Teachers to apply Scriptures to us And 1 Cor. 1. 21. It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe If there were no reason but this because it is God's institution we should submit to it 2. The use of the Ministry is to explain and vindicate truth Men darken counsel with words and render plain things obscure by their litigations and unprofitable debates Now they are set for the defence of the truth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Phil. 1. 7. And the Ministry must be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tit. 1. 9. Able to convince the gainsayers good at holding and drawing it is the humane help for weak understandings The Eunuch was reading and could not tell what to make of it then God sent him an Interpreter Acts 8. Now God's help should not be despised when he will employ men to salve doubts to guide us in our way to Heaven we should thankfully accept of it rather than quarrel at the institution 3. They are of use to apply Generals to particular Cases and to teach us how to deduce genuine Inferences from those truths laid down in the Scriptures Mal. 2. 7. In this sense it is said The Priests lips should preserve knowledge and they should seek the Law at his mouth for he is the messenger of the Lord of Hosts God hath appointed this office to some to solve the doubts that do arise about particular Exigences and Cases and to make out the mind of God to his People otherwise they need go no farther than the Tables and Books of Moses to seek the Law but God hath appointed some in the Church that are skill'd in consequences and deductions to raise matter therefrom so that it is a Minister's work to open and explain Scripture 4. There is a use of the Ministry to keep Doctrines still afoot in the Church and to keep us in remembrance Ministers are the Lord's remembrancers it is a great part of their office to mind People of their duty The Word is a Light but it must be set in the Candlestick of the Church they are to hold out the Light for our direction and guidance 5. There is a peculiar blessing and efficacy to a Christian from their calling Mat. 28. 20. Lo I am with you to the end of the world Object 4. It is said 2 Pet. 3. 16. That there are some things hard to be understood therefore how should it be a clear Rule to us Thereupon many take occasion to tax the Scriptures of obscurity and cry out that nothing is certain in Religion and so hinder and discourage men from the study of the Word Answ. 1. I answer The Apostle saith there are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 some things hard to be understood but doth not say there are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 things that cannot be understood not there are things impossible to be understood but there 's some difficulty in
God restored in us Ephes. 4. 24. The new man is created to restore in some measure those abilities we lost in Adam God never yet gave man a liberty to be free from the obligation of the Moral Law He would not pardon any sin against it without satisfaction made by Christ and believed and pleaded by sinful man Christ merited and God restored the Spirit of sanctification that men might keep it He will not spare his own Children when they transgress against it by heinous and scandalous sins as to temporal punishments Prov. 11. 31. The righteous man shall be recompenced upon Earth much more the wicked and the sinner Psal. 30. 31. David and Eli both smarted for their sins No man hath interest in Christ unless he return to the obedience of this Law 1 Cor. 9. 21. To them that are without Law as without Law being not without Law to God but under the Law to Christ that I might gain them that are without Law Rom. 8. 1 2. There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Iesus who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit For the Law of the spirit of life in Christ Iesus hath made me free from the Law of sin and death No interest in mercy else Gal. 6. 16. As many as walk according to this Rule peace and mercy be upon them We cannot have full Communion with God till we perfectly obey it Ephes. 5. 27. That he might present it to himself a glorious Church not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing but it should be holy and without blemish 2. The great priviledg of the Covenant of Grace is To be taught Gods Statutes or to have a real impress of them upon the heart and mind which is the way of Divine teaching Heb. 8. 10. For this is the Covenant that I will make with the house of Israel in those days saith the Lord I will put my laws into their minds and write them in their hearts and I will be to them a God and they shall be to me a people He will cure us of our wickedness weakness and carelesness and inable us to keep his Law 't is Gods undertaking to do so and that out of free Grace and favour for he is not indebted to us 't is to give us knowledge of them and power to keep them Much of the Law natural cannot be severed from it and that is the reason why the Heathens have the Law written upon their hearts Rom. 2. 15. But the writing is very imperfect both as to knowledge and power to keep it God will imprint them more perfectly this is the true Notion of the Law By the mind is meant understanding by the heart the rational appetite In the mind is the directive counsel in the will the imperial and commanding power There is the prime mover of all humane actions he giveth an apprehensive and perceptive power whereby we apprehend things more clearly and effectually desire and affect spiritual delights Use 1. Is to refute the claim of them that would plead mercy but would still go on in their own ways blessing themselves in their sins Till our hearts and minds are suited to Gods Law by a permanent tincture of holiness we are not fit Subjects to ask mercy and the promises of the Covenant 2. If we would have this effect we must go to God who alone can work upon the immortal Soul to reform mould or alter it a new man or Angel cannot do it they may by sense and fancy teach him many things but to make these lively impressions must be the work of the Spirit SERMON CXXXVII PSAL. CXIX VER 125. I am thy Servant give me understanding that I may know thy Testimonies IN this Verse he repeateth his Plea and Request also In the former Verse he mentioneth the relation of a servant and prayeth Teach me thy Statutes And here again First Asserteth his relation to God I am thy servant and Secondly Reneweth his Request Give me understanding Thirdly The fruit and effect of the Grant That I may know thy Testimonies or Then I shall know This repetition hath its use this repeating his relation to God sheweth That where the Conscience of our Dedication to God and our endeavours to serve him is clear and sincere we should not easily quit our claim Deal with thy Servant in mercy yea Lord I am thy servant I have my failings but Lord 't is in my heart to serve thee I can and will avow it as long as I live Our defects and disallowed failings do not deprive us of the title of being Gods Servants we may take comfort in it and assert our interest in the promises as long as we delight to do his will And though unbelief opposeth our claim we must remove it in the face of all objections Christ puts Peter to a threefold assertion of his love to him Iohn 21. 'T is supposed we do not lye in these redoubled professions of our respect and service to God Secondly This renewing his Request sheweth his earnestness to encrease in spiritual understanding Savoury and powerful knowledge of Divine things is in itself so excellent a benefit and our necessity of it is so great that we cannot enough pray for it Only observe that in the former Verse the Notion was Statutes here Testimonies Statutes are that part of Gods Word which we should obey Testimonies that part which we should believe viz. the promises But this may be too critical the words being taken in this Psalm in a greater latitude Doctr. That 't is a good Plea when we want any mercy spiritual or temporal to be able to plead that we are Gods servants I. That there are a sort of people that in a peculiar manner are Gods servants II. These may plead it when they want any mercy spiritual or temporal I. That some are in a peculiar manner Gods Servants The Saints of God are so called 't was Moses's honour They sung the Song of Moses the servant of the Lord. So Ios. 1. 1. Now after the death of Moses the servant of the Lord. So Paul asserts it of himself Acts 27. 23. The God whose I am and whom I serve Here is a true description of a Christian Man he is Gods and serveth God he is Gods by special appropriation and communion with God He serveth God that is walketh answerable to his relation and is ever about Gods work Elsewhere he describeth himself by his service Rom. 1. 9. My God whom I serve in my spirit 1 Tim. 1. 3. God whom I serve with a pure conscience But to know who in a peculiar manner are Gods servants we must distinguish 1. God is served actively and passively by necessity of Nature or voluntary choice Passively by necessity of Nature all Creatures even the inanimate are his servants Psal. 119. 91. They continue this day according to thine ordinances for all are thy servants But actively to serve him out of
our best actions Gal. 6. 16. Peace and Mercy when we have done most exactly yea the very plea of servant excludeth all thought of merit for a servant ipso jure Ministerium Domino debet Luke 17. 9. Doth he thank that servant because he did the things that were commanded I trow not 2. 'T is not contrary to humility 'T is not we are thy Children we are thy Saints but we are thy Servants 'T is the meanest of relations it speaketh duty rather than perfection and pleads not property of the house but propriety and interest in God The best of us are but servants to the high God and therefore should not carry it proudly either to our Master or to our Fellow-Servants 'T is an humble claim 3. It speaketh comfort for God will provide for his Family and will give maintenance protection direction help and finally wages where he requireth and expecteth service for the present necessaries by the way for the future a blessed reward For the present we may depend on him as Servants on their Lord Psal. 123. 2. Behold as the eyes of servants look to the hands of their masters and the eyes of maidens to the hand of their mistress c. Servants had their Dole and Portion from their Masters the Males from the Master the Females from the Mistress therefore is the expression of looking here used First God will give direction In the Text David upon the account of being Gods Servant beggeth to know his will as all good servants study what will please their masters and will God appoint us work and not tell us what it is Psal. 143. 10. Teach me to do thy will for thou art my God thy spirit is good lead me into the land of uprightness God doth not only shew us what is good in his word but teacheth us also by his spirit and directs us in every turn and motion of our lives and we ask it of him as he is our God and Lord. Secondly Help and assistance God is no Pharaoh to require Brick and give no Straw his Grace is ready to help the endeavouring Soul Gal. 2. 12 13. Work out your salvation for God worketh in you both to will and to do He exciteth the first motions and still carrieth them on to perfection Thirdly Protection while he hath a mind to use us vers 122. of this Psalm Be surety for thy servant for good let not the proud oppress me Under the Law if a servant was hurt the Master was to take an account and satisfaction to be made to him for his servant Deut. 21. 32. so God taketh an account of the wrongs of his servants and will demand satisfaction Fourthly Maintenance 1 Tim. 5. 8. Every man hath a care devolved upon him to take care of his Family and provide for them as instruments of Gods Providence and will not God provide for his own And then for time to come Gods servants have good wages Heb. 11. 6. He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him We need not seek another pay-master there is a sure reward Prov. 11. 18. But to him that soweth righteousness shall be a sure reward And a great reward Psal. 19. 11. And in the keeping of them is a great reward And a full reward 2 Iohn 8. But that we receive a full reward No desire remaineth unsatisfied Use. Is to perswade us to become the Servants of the Lord. 1. I will plead with you upon the account of right you ought to be so jure Creationis you were created by him As a man expecteth fruit from the Vine which he hath planted so may God expect from the Creature which he hath made yea you were made for this end If God had made us for another purpose our living to that end and purpose had been regular But this was his end that he might be served by us Let us lay these things together consider what an absolute power God hath by Creation no Lord hath such a right over his Slave or Servant as God over us The Slave or Servant is either taken in battel or bought and hired with our money but God made us out of nothing he that made a thing at his own pleasure hath a greater right than another can have by purchase yea greater right than a master over his Beast A master hath a greater right over his Beast than over his Servant the dominion over the Beast is more natural to us than over a Servant the Servant and Master have the same common Nature When he gave us dominion over the Beasts of the Field the one is founded in Gods original Grant the other is but a civil right founded in temporal accidents Something is due even to a Slave as our own Flesh. Yet a man cannot absolutely do with his Beast as he will the Law of God interposeth a good man is merciful to his beast God will not allow a cruel disposition nor give us the absolute disposal over the Creatures which we made not Nay more than a Potter over the Vessels which he hath framed or a Workman over his work he only giveth external shape or figure by art out of matter already prepared But God giveth the whole Being out of nothing nothing but what is his A Potter hath power over his work to dispose of it as he pleaseth here the Law interposeth not Surely if a Potter hath power to dispose of his Vessels God hath an absolute power to smite or heal lift up or cast down save or condemn none can say What dost thou He doth not fashion us out of matter prepared but out of mere nothing But this was his end that we should love and fear and serve and glorifie him Our business was not to eat and drink and please our selves and others and live a merry life All things act to the end for which they were created the Sun to shine by day and enlighten the World the Moon and Stars by night and they answer their end Their ultimate end is to serve God their next end to serve Man All things in the World are either subjected to our dominion or created for our use the Heavens though not under our dominion as Beasts yet are for our use the lower Heaven to give us breath the middle Heaven to give us light and heat the highest Heaven for our Dwelling Place the Sun runneth and hasteneth to give us light The Sun shineth for us the Wind bloweth and the Water Howeth for our use The Earth and Air are for our use the Earth to tread on the Air to breathe in and shall not we serve him that made the whole Course to serve us All the Creatures are at work for us day and night for a poor Worm of six foot long yea the Creator is at work for us My Father worketh hitherto and I work We complain if the Creatures do not serve us and shall not we serve God who gave us those Servants 2. A right
evil humour or to encrease our hatred and exasperation against a party whom it may be we hate too much already with a carnal hatred but to a good purpose partly that we may not be too consident of carnal ease too soon God will it may be have the enemies Cup yet fuller and that they shall appear more in their own colours And so our tryals may be greater We know not the bounds of the Lords patience We that are apt to extenuate our own sins are apt to aggravate the sins of others look upon them in the Glass of passion and cry too soon it is time But of this by and by And partly that we may see the greatness of our transgressions by which we have provoked the Lord to give us up into the hands of such men as blaspheme his Name every day Isai. 52. 5. Our sins were full in our kind in the abuse of Gods truth and worship and though not such moral wickedness yet a great deal of spiritual wickedness And God is more quick and severe upon us and will not bear that in a professing people that he beareth in others Iudgment begins at the house of God 1 Pet. 4. 17. The Cup of trembling goes round and his own people drink first and our staggering is not yet over in time they shall pledge us God beareth with Balaam though he tempted him again and again when he would not bear with the young Prophet whom the Lyon slew He bore with the Philistines a long time e're they were plagned We feel the smart of the Rod sooner Zech. 12. Yet 't is apparent our kind of sins were grown to a ripeness our selfseeking factions turbulency unquietness under Government abuse of Christian liberty uncharitable Divisions among our selves vexing one another vain opinions sleighting Gods Ministers and Ordinances And partly that we may be humbled for their sins It should be a grief to us to see men break Gods Laws to see men outdare Heaven David fasted for his enemies Psal. 35. 14 15 16. and Psal. 119. 136. Rivers of tears run down mine eyes because men keep not thy Law because God is so much dishonoured humane Nature so much corrupted If more of this spirit were stirring it were the better for us And partly that we may fear our selves We are bound up in the same Community and when God judgeth them how shall we escape The Jews have a Proverb That two dry Sticks may set a green one on fire The meaning is The godly man may fall in the common calamity Wheat is plucked up with the Tares God saith in Deut. 7. 22. That they should not destroy all the Canâ—…anites lest the beasts of the field should encrease upon them The safety of his people are involved in the safety of their sinning and persecuting enemies A Hedg of Thorns may serve for a fence to a Garden of Roses and all the relief we have is the Lord can make a distinction 2 Pet. 2. 9. The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptation and to reserve the unjust unto the day of Iudgment to be punished 3. Why doth God take this time First For his own Glory His Justice is more discovered when men have filled up their measure Psal. 51. 4. That thou mayest be justified when thou speakest and be clear when thou judgest It justifieth Gods proceedings and maketh us the more inexcusable So also his power 't is Gods time to send help and remedy when all things are gone to utter confusion when things are at the most desperate pass Psal. 124. 3 4 5. in our low estate then is God seen Secondly Hereby Gods work upon Mount Zion is promoted His people are humbled when their Adversaries are chief and rage against them Psal. 123. 4. Our soul is exceedingly filled with the scorning of those that are at ease and with contempt of the proud When things come to extremity their prayers are quickened Psal. 130. 1. Out of the depths I cryed unto thee O Lord. They are fitted to prize mercy Psal. 102. 13 14. They that thought it no great matter to have a standing Temple delight in the dust of a ruinous heap Then Shepherds Tents look lovely we set a higher rate on despised Ordinances In short they are waiting and praying and humbling their souls before God IV. Fourth Consideration When a flood of wickedness is thus broken out we may mind God of the deliverance of his people But what needs that Doth not God know his seasons and will not he exactly observe them In the Answer I shall shew you Why and How 1. Why Because First God loveth to be awakened by the prayers of his people and when he hath a mind to work he sets the spirit of prayer awork Ier. 29. 11 12. I know the thoughts that I think towards you saith the Lord thoughts of peace and not of evil to give you an expected end Then shall ye call upon me and ye shall go and pray unto me and I will hearken unto you So thus and thus will I do Ezek. 36. 37. Yet for this will I be enquired of by the house of Israel We are to give a lift by our prayers 't is a time of finding Psal. 32. 6. Secondly He hath put an office upon us God acts the part of a Judg we as Sollicitors and Remembrancers Isai. 62. 6 7. I have set Watchmen upon thy Walls O Ierusalem which shall never hold their peace night nor day Ye that make mention of the Lord keep not silence and give him no rest till he make Ierusalem a praise in the Earth We are to put God in mind so that we but do our duty 2. How The principle and manner must be right First The principle be sure it be not the impatiency of the Flesh or love to our own ease or a mere tediousness and irksomeness of the Cross be sure it be not passion and a principle of revenge but a desire of promoting his honour and vindicating his glory David doth not say how troublesome they were to himself but they make void thy Law as if he had said Lord if my own interest were only concerned I would not open my mouth nor ever call upon thee to revenge my private quarrels but it is my zeal for thy Honour and Ordinances not that I have received injury but thy worship is corrupted work else what will become of thy Name and poor people Offences done against God should grieve us more than our own injuries and we should rather regard the general interest of Religion than any personal offence done to us There is often a carnal spirit breathing in our prayers and our zeal is fleshly the people of God beat it back Psal. 115. 1. Not unto us not unto us but unto thy Name give glory And Psal. 74. 10. O Lord how long shall the adversary reproach and the enemy blaspheme thy name for ever The godly can endure their own troubles better than
the power that worketh in us He instanceth in that which God hath done for us in Christ which is beyond our Prayer Conceptions and Hopes transcending the hopes and apprehensions of the most inlarged hearts Thus is a Christian a wonder to himself 2. He is a wonder to the world if he keep up the Majesty and vigour of Religion 1 Pet. 4. 4. Wherein they think it strange that you run not with them to the same excess of riot speaking evil of you It was strange to them that they should be altered so of a suddain that of filthy puddles they should become clear as Crystal Waters a Sink turned into a pure Fountain that men should live above Interests of Nature row against the stream of Flesh and blood this is all strange to the world and this is the fruits of the word for the word of God is perfect converting the soul Psal. 19. 8. Every grace is a Mystery and Wonder especially Faith for a man to believe that which he understandeth not to hope for that he seeth not to have that which he wants to be tossed with Tempests and yet to enjoy a sweet calm in our own hearts to be destitute of all things and yet be as little anxious as if we indeed had all things as poor yet making many rich as having nothing yet possessing all things to be a Rock in the midst of a storm as dying and yet we live 2 Cor. 4. 8 9. We are troubled on every side yet not distressed We are perplexed but not in despair persecuted but not forsaken cast down but not destroyed 2 Cor. 6. 10. As sorrowful yet always rejoycing as poor yet making many rich as having nothing and yet possessing all things Thus is a Believer the worlds wonder a very Riddle to carnal sense So in other graces he can hate Father and Mother for Christs sake can also love enemies at Christs command he that doth even break his heart for the least sin can bear up against the greatest Trouble Thus I might exemplifie the Point but I must go a little largely to work First Gods Testimonies are wonderful in their Majesty and composure which striketh Reverence into the hearts of those that consider it speaketh to us at a God-like rate Jesus Christ leaves a Character of his divine spirit upon his words Mar. 7. 28 29. And it came to pass when Iesus had ended these sayings the people were astonished at his Doctrine for he taught them as one having authority and not as the Scribes There was an impression of his Authority upon his word his hearers were convinced of a Soveraign Majesty proper to the Dignity of his Person Those that went to take him returned this account Ioh. 7. 46. Never man spake like this Man for Authority power and Evidence Now the Scriptures being Christs Doctrine why should they not have the same Power Authority and divine Character in them It is the same Doctrine the voice could add nothing to it and the writing take nothing from it Could not God discover his Soveraign Majesty in Writing as well as Speaking Look into the Scriptures are you not even compelled to say this can be no other but the word of God they speak not as conscious of any weakness or as begging Assent but as commanding it Thus saith the Lord hear it or ye are undone for ever The wisdom Majesty Authority of the Author sheweth it self in every line almost of Scripture Longinus an Heathen admired the Majesty of that passage 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Indeed every where there is great Authority mixed with simplicity and plainness of speech Such as moveth Reverence and awe in the consciences of men It may be it is not seen in every phrase and clause of a sentence but it is clearly discovered in the whole frame as the Majesty of a mans countenance is not so fully discovered in any one part of the face as in the whole visage taken jointly together Scriptura sic loquitur saith Austin ut alitudine superbos irrideat profunditate attentos terreat veritate magnos pascat affabilitate parvos nutriat Scripture so speaketh that it laughs proud and lofty men to scorn with the height of it with the depths of it it terrifieth those who with attention look into it with Truth it seedeth men of greatest knowledge and understanding with affability and sweetness it nourisheth babes and sucklings Let a man have but any thing of a prepared mind and he cannot contain his wonder and Reverence but will tremble at the word of God Isa. 66. 2. To this man will I look even to him that is poor and of a contrite Spirit and trembleth at my word Secondly It is wonderful for the Matter and depth of Mystery which cannot be found elsewhere concerning God and Christ the Creation of the World the Souls of men and their immortal and everlasting condition the Fall of man c. Here God is set forth to us in the clearest representation that we are capable of in this mortal state God is in part seen in the Creatures Rom. 1. 20. For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made even his eternal Power and Godhead Every thing that hath passed his hand discovereth somewhat of the Author and maker of it but as imperfectly as God is discovered there we cannot behold him without wonder and Reverence If we use never so little of an attentive mind those Strictures of God that are seen in mans Body Galen wondered when he saw a mans hand the Sun Moon and Stars yea a gnat yea a pile of grass but these discoveries are not to be compared with the Scriptures revealing the glory of God in the face of Christ 2 Cor. 4. 6. For God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness hath shined in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Iesus Christ. If we wonder at so much of God as we find in a Gnat shall not we wonder much more at so much of God as we find in his Law in his Gospel in the whole Oeconomy and frame of his gracious dispensations Besides that the Scriptures help us to interpret the Book of the Creatures they show forth more of God than all the Creatures can do the Book of Nature is an imperfect piece in regard of the Book of Scripture You cannot look upon the Book of the Creatures but in every page and line of it you will find this Truth presented to your eyes that there is an infinite eternal power that made all things this is enough to leave the world without excuse But in the Book of the word you may see more of God and the way how to enjoy him In the 19. Psalm David doth first admire the glory of God by the beauty of the Heavens then by the light of the word By reason the Heathens
peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly 'T is but a little while and we shall receive the Crown and triumph over all our enemies III. Why the Saints should deprecate this evil 1. Because there is sin still in us all 'T is a bosome enemy that is born and bred with us and therefore it will soon get the advantage of Grace if it be not watched and resisted As Nettles and Weeds that are kindly to the Soil will soon choke Flowers and better Herbs that are planted by care and grow not of their own accord when they are neglected and not continually rooted out We cannot get rid of this cursed Inmate till this outer Tabernacle be dissolved and this House of Clay crumbled into dust Our old nature is so inclinable to this slavery that if God substract his Grace what shall we do 2 It is not only in us but always working and striving for the mastery it is not as other things which as they grow in age are more quiet and tame but Rom. 7. 8. Sin wrought in me all manner of concupiscence the Spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy It is not a sleepy but a working stirring principle If it were a dull and unactive habit the danger were not so great but it is always exercising and putting forth it self and seeking to gain an interest in our affections and a Command over all our actions and therefore unless we do our part to keep it under we shall soon revert to our old slavery Sin must be kept under as a Slave or else it will be above as a Tyrant and domineer Once more The more it acts the more strength it gets as all habits are encreased by action for when we have once yielded we are ready to yield again Therefore any one sin let alone yea that which we least suspect may bring us into subjection and captivity to the Law of sin Rom. 7. 23. It doth not only make us flexible and yielding to temptations but it doth urge and impel us thereunto Again This bondage is daily encreasing and more hard to be broken for by multiplied acts a custome creepeth upon us which is another Nature And that which might be remedied at first groweth more difficult Diseases looked to at first are more easie to be cured whereas otherwise they grow desperate So sins before hardned into a custome before they bring us under the power of any Creature or Comfort which we affect 2 Cor. 6. 12. For then afterwards it cometh to a compleat dominion and slavery so that if a man would he cannot help it It behoveth then every Child of God to do his part that sin may not reign for where care is not taken it certainly will reign Use. To reprove the security and carelesness of many David suspected himself else he would never have made this prayer to God Lord keep me Let not any iniquity have dominion over me And we should all do so that would be safe Prov. 28. 14. Happy is the man that feareth alway but he that hardneth his heart shall fall into mischief A constant watchfulness and holy jealousie and self-suspicion will be no burthen to you but a blessing Sin deceiveth us into hardness of heart for want of taking heed Many that are secure do not consider their danger and therefore they are not so careful to watch over themselves nor so humble as to implore the Divine assistance because they do not consider how soon they may be transported by a naughty heart and brought under the power and reign of sin Surely were we as sensible of the danger of the inward man as we are of the outward we would resist the first motions and not nourish and foster a temptation as we do The Saints do not tarry till the dead blow cometh but resist the first strokes of sin they do not tarry till it pines to death but resist the first inclinations An evil inclination if it be cherished and gratified gets ground the longer we let it alone the harder will our conflict be for sin secureth its interest by degrees 2. It sheweth the fearful estate of them that lye under the dominion of sin But who will owne it First It is certain that all men in their natural estate are in this condition Sin doth reign where there is no principle of Grace set up against it The Throne is always filled Mans heart cannot lye empty and void If Grace doth not reign sin reigneth Natural men are under the power of darkness Acts 28. 18. and Col. 1. 13. living in a peaceable subjection to sin till Christ come to trouble it all is quiet Wind and Tide go together Secondly It appeareth by your course Many will say There is not a just man on earth that doth good and sinneth not You are Sinners as well as we Answ. There is a difference though there be not a good man upon earth that sinneth not Eccl. 7. 20. yet there is a difference Some have not the spot of Gods Children Deut. 32. 5. There is a difference between sins Levit. 23. 24 27. God gave the Priest under the Law direction how to put a difference between leprous persons So still there is a great deal of difference between numbness and death and between dimness of sight and blindness want of sense and want of life between stumbling into a Ditch and throwing our selves headlong into an Ocean And so there is a difference between infirmities and iniquities a failing out of ignorance and weakness or some powerful temptation and a running headlong into all ungodliness Gods Children have their failings but a burning desire to be freed from them Though others wallow in their sin without any care of a remedy In the one there is a failing in point of Duty in the other a Rebellion Take Iudas and Peter both sinned against their Master the one denied the other betrayed him the one denied him out of fear the other betrayed him out of covetousness and greediness of gain the one plotted his death the other was surprized on a sudden There is a great deal of difference between purpose and a surprize the one wept bitterly the other is given up to a raging despair David did not make a trade of Adultery and bathe himself in filthy lusts Noah was drunk but not knowing the power of the juice of the Grape They dare not lye in this estate but seek to get out by repentance Thirdly Some things may beget caution and move you to suspect your selves that is when your souls readily comply with the temptation you are at sins beck If it saith Go you go if it saith Come you come It is of great concernment to know what goes to the determining a mans condition to know at whose beck he is whether he is at the Fleshes or Spirits beck Psal. 103. 20. The Godly are described that they hearken unto the voice of his Word so the wicked are those that hearken to the voice
of sin If sin but make a motion it is a match presently If ambition bid Absolom rise up against his Father then he will trouble all the Kingdome it will hurry him to run his Father down if envy bid Cain kill his Brother Abel he will not stick at it if covetousness bid Achan take a bribe of that which was devoted to the flames and must be offered as a burnt-Offering to God yet Achan obeys his covetousness if adultery bids Ioseph's Mistress tempt her servant presently she yields So when a sinner yields and is led away like a Fool to the correction of the Stocks Meadow-Ground may in a great Flood be drowned but Marish-Ground is overflown by every return of the Tide so they cannot cease to sin every temptation carries them away When men are impatient of reproof when they have a privy sore they cannot endure should be touched if a man speak to them any thing to help them on to interpret their condition Herod must not have his Herodias touched though he heard Iohn the Baptist gladly in many things Or when men set up a toleration and Court of faculties in their hearts and they will have a dispensation if God will be contented with obedience in some things they will dispense with other things pardon for some sins but not break them off have an indulgence that they may continue in them or in vain practices This shews the reign of sin SERMON CXLIX PSAL. CXIX VER 134. Deliver me from the oppression of man so will I keep thy Precepts IN the former Verse the man of God had begged Grace with respect to internal enemies to the bosome enemy the flesh that no sin might have dominion over him now he beggeth deliverance from external enemies The Saints are not only exercised with their own corruptions but the malice of wicked men We have to do both with sin and Sinners with temptations and persecutions and therefore he desireth first to be kept from sin and after that from danger and trouble first from the dominion of sin and then from the oppression of Sinners both are a trouble to us they were a trouble to David and God can and will in time give us deliverance from both Deliver me from the oppression of man c. In the Text we have 1. A Prayer for mercy 2. A resolution vow and promise of Duty The one is inferred out of the other So will I keep thy precepts 1. A Prayer for mercy Deliver me from the oppression of man In the Hebrew 'tis From the oppression of Adam the name of the first Father for the posterity This term is put either by way of distinction aggravation or diminution First Man by way of distinction There is the oppression and tyranny of the Devil and sin but the Psalmist doth not mean that now Hominum non Daemonum saith Hugo Secondly Man by way of aggravation Homo homini Lupus no Creatures so ravenous and destructive to one another as man 'T is a shame that one man should oppress another Beasts do not usually devour those of the same kind but usually a mans enemies are those of his own houshold Matth. 10. 36. The nearer we are in Bonds of allyance the greater the hatred We are of the same stock and reason should tell every one of us that we should do as we would be done to Nay we are of the same Religion Eodem sanguine Christi glutinati We are cemented together by the blood of Christ which obliges to more brotherly kindness and if we differ in a few things to be sure we have Cords of allyance and relations enough to love one another more than we do But for all this there is the oppression of man Thirdly Man by way of diminution And to lessen the fear of this evil this term Adam is given them to shew their weakness in comparison of God thou art God but they that are so ready and forward to oppress and injure us are but men thou canst easily over-rule their power and break the yoke I think this Consideration chiefest because of other places Psal. 10. 18. Thou wilt judge the fatherless and the oppressed that the man of the earth may no more oppress The Oppressors are but men of the earth a piece of red Clay Earth in his composition Earth in his dissolution frail men that must within a while be laid in the Dust. But 't is more emphatically expressed Isai. 51. 12 13. Who art thou that thou shouldest be afraid of a man that shall dye and of the son of man that shall be made as grass and forgettest the Lord thy Maker which hath stretched forth the Heavens and laid the foundations of the Earth and hast feared continually every day because of the fury of the Oppressour as if he were ready to destroy And where is now the rage of the Oppressour When thou hast the Immortal and Almighty God to be thy Protector and Saviour shouldest thou be afraid of a weak mortal man that is but Adam a little enlivened Dust within a little while he and all his fury is over and gone 2. The promise of Duty I will keep thy precepts Which is a constant observation of all Gods Commandments if God would interpose for his rescue But did David do well to suspend his obedience upon so uncertain a condition I answer No we must of whom shall I be afraid We can set God against the Creature and thâ—… will quell our fears of them When we set our selves against them our interest against theirs we may see Cause to fear but set God against them and engage him and you have no cause to fear Then Secondly For grief and sorrow It cloggeth the heart and stayeth the Wheels so that we drive on heavily in the spiritual life Worldly sorrow worketh death 2 Cor. 7. 10. It brings on deadness and hardness of heart and quencheth all our vigour Prov. 15. 13. By sorrow of heart the Spirit is broken A dead and heavy heart doth little to the purpose for God Now how shall we get rid of this The Cure is by prayer for vent giveth ease to all our passions Phil. 4. 6. Be careful for nothing but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God As when Wind is gotten into the Caverns of the Earth it causeth terrible Convulsions and Earthquakes till it get a vent so the mind is eased when we can pour out our care into the bosome of God and wait till deliverance cometh from above Prayer sheweth there is some life in our affairs that our right for the present is not dead but sleeps there is a God in Heaven that heareth our groans and is sensible of our sorrows and then we may say Psal. 42. 5. Why art thou cast down O my soul and why art thou disquieted within me Hope thou in God for I shall yet praise him c. Prayer is the old refuge of the
to an earnest attendance upon God and all probabilities spent we have no help but what Heaven and a promise can afford and upon these terms continue our importunity Luke 18. 7 18. 'T is a long time e're men will lay it to heart to see his hand and seek to him for relief 3. When you have prayed then wait 'T is a good sign when we are enlarged in prayer and encouraged to wait Enlarged to pray for when God hath a mind to work he sets the spirit of prayer awork God will not pour out his spirit in vain the spirit knoweth the deep things of God Psal. 50. 15. Call upon me in a time of trouble and I will deliver thee So when we are encouraged to wait how can our prayers be heard when we regard them not our selves and expect an issue How should God hear when we pray out of course and do not think our prayers worth the regarding Psal. 85. 8. I will hearken what God the Lord will speak c. Psal. 40. 1. I waited patiently for the Lord he enclined unto me and heard my Cry Hab. 2. 1. I will watch to see what he will say Look for an Answer God doth not usually disappoint a waiting people II. When God delivereth us from the oppression of man we should be quickened and encouraged in his service Reasons 1. Because every mercy inferreth an answerable Duty 2 Chron. 32. 25. But Hezekiah rendred not according to the benefit done unto him There must be rendring according to receiving 2. This is the fittest return partly because 't is real not verbal The Lord cares not for words he knows the secret spring of the heart Isai. 38. 9. and see Psal. 50. 23. 'T is good to be speaking good of Gods name This is one way of glorifying but ordering the Conversation aright is that which is most pleasing to him And partly too because our Cloggs of fear and sorrow and other impediments are taken away Psal. 119. 32. I will run the ways of thy Commandments when thou shalt enlarge my heart This was Gods end to deliver us out of the hands of our enemies that we may serve him without fear Luke 1. 74 75. Those Wretches that said Ier. 7. 10. We are delivered to do all these abominations to return to the practices of their vile courses afresh did pervert Gods end in their deliverance What use shall we make of such a Point in our deep sorrows Answ. First We are not altogether without this benefit 2 Chron. 7. 12. The Lord said I have heard thy prayer Many times God maketh his love conspicuous to his people in a low condition they are oppressed sore but not grinded to powder 't is a blessing we are not quite destroyed Exod. 1. 12. The Israelites the more they were afflicted the more they multiplied and the Egyptians were grieved for the Children of Israel that they were not extinguished God dealeth with us as then he did with them 2 Sam. 12. 7. 〈◊〉 I will grant them some deliverance Secondly We are now under the sad effects of our former unthankfulness and by â—…membring our duty we may see our sin Hos. 4. 3 4. Ingratitude and walking unanswerably to received mercy is the great and crying sin of Gods people therefore we should humble our selves that we did so little good in former times of liberty that God had so little glory and service from us Now God by his present Providence sheweth us the difference Deut. 28. 47 48. Because thou servest not the Lord thy God with joyfulness and with gladness of heart for the abundance of all things therefore thou shalt serve thine enemies c. 2 Chron. 12. 8. Nevertheless they shall be his servants that they may know my service and the service of the Kingdoms of the Countries First we must be humbled for the abuse of former mercies before we seek new Thirdly That we may know what to have in our eye when we are asking for mercies The end is first in intention though last in execution Do not pray to serve thy lusts more freely nor think how to execute revenge be quits with those that hate us nor how we shall be provided for but what glory and service we may bring to God Psal. 75. 2. When I shall receive the Congregation I will judge uprightly These mercies must not be abused to licentiousness or to nourish our selves in sin or stupid security but in duty and service Fourthly It teacheth us how to make our promises and oblige our selves to God When you come to promise duty and obedience to God be sure to be sincere and holy make due provision that it may be so by mortifying the roots of such Distempers as will betray us When a people in a low condition have a real inclination to praise and glorifie God by their mercies as soon as they shall receive them 't is an Argument God will hear and grant III. But when we are praying for deliverance we should interpose promises of obedience as David doth here Deliver me from the oppression of man so will I keep thy precepts 1. To shew there is the ratio dati accepti to shew the law of giving and receiving is natural to us 't is an ingraffed principle in mens minds When we think of Gods giving we should think of returning something An intercourse between God and us is maintained by mercies and duties not that God needeth or that we can oblige him but this qualifieth us Intercourse is lost when we would receive all and return nothing 2. A solemn promise is necessary to excite and quicken our dulness or a Bond upon us or a Bridle to our inconstancy We cannot unbind our selves again from our strict obligation to obedience Use. Well then let us make good the vows of our distress they must be payed or else God is mocked Eccl. 5. 4. When thou vowest a vow unto God deferr not to pay it for he hath no pleasure in fools Pay that which thou hast vowed Job 22. 27. Thou shalt make thy prayer unto him and he shall hear thee and thou shalt pay thy vows SERMON CL. PSAL. CXIX VER 135. Make thy face to shine upon thy Servant and teach me thy Statutes THis Verse is wholly precatory Most of the Verses of this Psalm have a Prayer with an Argument but here both the Branches are petitory Observe in the words 1. The blessings prayed for 2. The order of these Petitions 3. The connexion that is between them 1. The blessings he prayeth for are two First For Gods favour and secondly For his direction in Gods ways spiritual consolation and encrease of sanctification David could not live out of Gods favour nor without his direction therefore he prays heartily for both 2. The order of these Petitions First Make thy face to shine and then Teach me thy Statutes Gods favour is the fountain of all goodness to his Children and Servants and until we have that we can have
when in hand and in present expectation work far otherwise than they do when they are considered at a distance So when the effects of sin are looked upon as near at hand when faith makes them present then they stir up these affections in the soul. Fifthly A fifth cause is from their publick Spirit and tender respect to the common good When they wisely foresee approaching dangers they are moved with the love and care of their Countrey and this melteth them They know sin is of a destroying nature that one sinner destroyeth much good Eccl. 9. 18. One sinner may do his Countrey a great deal of mischief an open bold fac'd Sinner Achan troubled the whole Camp Iosh. 7. 11 12. much more when a multitude of Sinners are encreased therefore they sigh and mourn Godly men are the truest friends to their native soil they are the Chariots and Horsemen of Israel Those that plead with God stand in the Gap keep off Judgments and have the most publick spirit therefore the least they can do is to sigh for it and to plead with wicked men as Tertullian Si non vis tibi parcere parce Carthagini If thou wilt go on with thy soul-destroying course and wilt not spare thy self yet spare Carthage This will be bitterness in the issue The Children of God are always of a publick Spirit David fasted for his enemies Psal. 35. Abraham prayed to God for Sodom a neighbour Countrey the godly Israelites were good friends to Babylon in their Captivity Ier. 29. 11. Seek the peace of the City whither I have caused you to be carried captive and pray unto the Lord for it for in the peace thereof ye shall have peace If nothing but their interest and share in the common rest and quietness Passengers are concerned in the welfare of the Vessel wherein they are imbarked Babylon fared the better for the Jews prayers Now more especially are their hearts carried out with a respect to their native Soil and dearest comforts therefore this melteth them to see the Land defiled with sins and ready for Judgments SERMON CLII. PSAL. CXIX VER 136. Rivers of water run down mine eyes because they keep not thy Law USE 1. For reproof of two sorts of persons 1. Those that do not lay to heart their own sins Usually men make their affections to prescribe to their judgment and cavil at the fervorous exercises of Religion because unpleasant to flesh and blood To humble our selves before the Lord with a pressing sorrow seriously and indeed to rend our hearts and not our garments In this wanton and delicate Age men are apt to think I speak of a Theam obsolete and out of date as calculated for former times when men were more tender hearted if we could awaken some of the old godly professors out of their Graves as the Prophet calleth up Rachel to weep in Ramah for her Children Ier. 31. 15. then we might hope to prevail Alas to plead now for mourning over the sins of others when men think it a crime to mourn for their own this is like to be lost labour Were this the humour only of ungodly Wretches it might be born with silence and patience but those that would be taken for Christians of the highest form are altogether prejudiced against such Doctrines as this Men would be honeyed and oyled with Grace and distaste the wholesome discipline of repentance as too severe They cry out we are legal How may the poor Ministers of the Gospel go to God and say as Moses did Exod. 6. 12. The Children of Israel have not hearkened unto me how then shall Pharaoh hear me The Professors of Religion will not brook such Doctrine and how shall we hope to prevail with the poor blind carnal world To scoff at Doctrines of repentance and humiliation was once a badg of prophaneness many now adopt it into their Religion But be not deceived the Gospel doth not take away the Conscience of sin It may take away the fear of Hell and damnation upon right terms The heart of flesh is a promise and the spirit of Grace is a promise or mourning apart is a promise You that say that justified persons must no more mourn for sin you may as well say they shall no longer have an heart of flesh or a spirit of Grace and supplications that they shall no longer have a tender Conscience Be not deceived there must be some time to weep for your own sins as Peter went out and wept bitterly Sorrow must have its turn in the Christian life I would press it upon you by this Argument You cannot be sorrowful for others sins unless you be first sorrowful for your own sins Grief must begin at home there where you have the advantage of Conscience and inward remorse 'T is hypocrisie to pitch upon other mens sins and neglect our own as some will zealously declaim against publick disorders yet neglect their own hearts as the crafty Lapwing will go up and down fluttering and crying to draw the Fowler from her own Nest. We have a nest of sin of our own and we are loth it should be rifled and exposed to publick view 2. It reproveth them that in times of publick defection never take care to mourn over Gods dishonour We complain and murmure under our Judgments but do not weep over our sins every person and family apart Whether it be out of negligence and carnal security or out of distaste and displeasure against the conduct of present affairs we seem to have lost our publick affections and can only wonder at the Children of God in former times since they were so broken and tender To many that would now go for Professors this Doctrine seemeth a Riddle a mere strain of wit and fancy like a precept wire-drawn or elevated beyond its pitch and tenour But in the fear of God consider what hath been spoken There are many abuses in our reflections upon the sins of others Wicked men are quite otherwise disposed they do not only do evil themselves but take pleasure in those that do so Rom. 1. 32. would be glad that sin were more common that it might be less odious and then there would be none to put them to the blush Prov. 2. 14. It is said they rejoyce to do evil and delight in the frowardness of the wicked So the Prophet speaks of some corrupt men in the Priesthood They eat up the sin of my people and they set their heart on their iniquity Hos. 4. 8. God had appointed those that served at the Altar should live of the Altar have a proportion of those Offerings Now they flattered them in their sins so they might have meat and get a portion of the Sacrifices Many that would be accounted Ministers care not for the sins of the people but think the less serious men are in Religion the better they can work them to their private advantages and have more respect among them Then there are some
also bearing witness and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another As long as we have these hearts that we have we cannot wholly except against the Justice and Equity of these Laws and Rules of Commerce between God and his Creatures It is true all truths are not alike evident but they that seriously mind the one will be led on to the other at least will find none contrary to such Conclusions as may be drawn from principles naturally known and will be encouraged to go on till God reveal more to them This is so evident that the wiser any among the heathen are the nearer they come to this Rule and have framed something like it for the regulation of men though with great mixtures of their own folly The perfect discovery of Mans duty God reserved to himself and his own Writings else where there is but fict a rectitudo and pict a Iustitia poor Counterfeits in the Laws of Civil Nations and Institutions of Philosophy Sapientia eorum abscondit vitia non abscindit there was only a little hiding and disguising of sin that it might not appear too odious In short the less knowledg any Nation or Society of men have of this Law the more brutish and barbarous they have been and so accounted to be by all that have known what civility and humane converse mean And on the contrary the more polite and civil the nearer they came to it Whom would you judge to be more civil the Romans or the Scythians the wife and good man or the Sot and Fool Even among us the more punctually any keepeth to this Law the more he differeth from others as much as an Angel from a Man or a Man from a Beast The righteous is more excellent than his Neighbour Prov. 12. 26. It is as clear as the Sun whether men will or nill they must acknowledge it and do when they are serious for they approve them while they hate them wish their latter end like theirs intrust them more than others presume more from them than others Out of all I conclude That the very frame and constitution of the reasonable and immortal Soul and Body of Man doth dictate the Equity and Justice of this Law and it doth result from the Image of God wherein man was created Thirdly That Law is just and righteous the violation of which men judge to be justly punished I use this Argument because under punishment men are serious for it rubbeth up and reviveth the sense of a Divine Power Now for the violation of this Law God hath judged Persons Families Nations and Kingdoms and Conscience is sensible of the Justice of Gods Judgments exercised upon them God is clear when he judgeth Psal. 51. 4. his eminent Judgments carry light and conviction with them and wherefore have his Judgments been executed Rom. 1. 18. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness Heb. 2. 2. Every transgression and disobedience received a just recompence of reward There is a fear after some notorious breach even in those that are not acquainted with God a shyness of his Presence ever since Adam run to the Bushes so it is All which doth seal the righteousness and truth of this Law and how justly God may reckon with us about it Fourthly There is an intrinsecal righteousness in all the Duties commanded in Gods Law Besides the will of the Law-giver there is a Justice in the things themselves By what measure will we take Justice We usually understand it to be to give every one his due So doth the Law it commandeth us to give God his due and man his due Love is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the fulfilling of the Law The Law is comprized in one word Love to love God himself and his Neighbour is there not Justice in all this The natural relation we have to God calleth for love to him for he made us and is the strength of our lives and the length of our days Deut. 30. 20. That thou mayst love the Lord thy God and that thou mayst obey his voice and that thou mayst cleave to him for he is thy life and the length of thy days Self-love and self-preservation if that be not a natural principle nothing is Our Neighbour we are bound to love because of Consanguinity they are our own flesh and blood and God hath bidden us to do to them as we would to our selves Matth. 7. 12. Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you do ye even so to them for this is the Law and the Prophets There is an universal Consanguinity between all Mankind which hath its root in the communion of one and the same Nature and in the dependance and derivation from one common Stock The eminence of the Divine Nature is the foundation of the honour which we tender to it and the equality of our nature is the foundation of the Justice which we use to one another So that here are natural immutable Obligations and grounds of right Go to particulars How equal is it that we should acknowledge but one God They are drunk that see double strangely depraved that see more That we should not worship him before an Idol which is very apt to taint our minds with a gross opinion of God as if he were some limited finite Being It is a great lessening of reverence to see what we worship Not to take Gods Name in vain by a false Oath that breedeth Atheism and contempt That there should be a day to remember the Creator of all things every days work is no days work but there must be a limited time For reverence to Parents all Nations call for it For Murder Adultery Stealing false Accusations Mans interest will teach him the necessity of those Laws that forbid these things Contentation is a Guard to all the rest it is fit the God of the Spirits of all Flesh should give a Law to the Spirit Thou shalt not covet Yet this is the Law of God to which Scripture is subservient and all the admonitions reproofs exhortations dehortations examples directions histories of the obedience and vertue of some with their rewards of the disobedience apostasie rebellion of others with their punishments all is to inforce this Law The Doctrine of Christ and redemption and reconciliation by him I bring not under this first Head because that is a favour and priviledge and the Justice and Equity of Gospel Precepts will soon appear when once we have consented to the Law that it is good But of that in the next Head Thirdly For the truth and faithfulness of Gods Testimonies This may be considered either in revealing or performing making or making good his promises First For truth and faithfulness in making such offers and promises of pardon and eternal life in case of obedience and threatning a curse and everlasting punishment in case of
2. Why all that love the Word they should have this Great and Pure Zeal I. What is true Zeal There is a carnal zeal and there 's a spiritual zeal First The carnal zeal to begin with that is Threefold 1. That which comes from an ill cause and produceth ill effects An ill cause as hatred of mens persons or envy at their Gifts and Excellencies or their success and happiness in the World Iam. 3. 14. If ye have bitter envying in your hearts it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if you have bitter zeal in your hearts There is a kind of bitter zeal and malignity at their excellency whether Gifts Graces Rank Dignity in the World And ver 16. he tells us this bitter zeal produceth confusion and every evil work To be consumed and eaten out with envy is little commendable This is not the zeal of the Text With this zeal were the chief Priests filled when they saw that the Gospel came into some reputation and that the people do what they could did haunt and frequent it we read Acts 5. 17. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we render it they were filled with indignation it is in the Greek and in the Margin they were filled with zeal with this bitter zeal malignity envy indignation they would bestir themselves to suppress the growing Gospel by all the means that possibly they could 2. There 's an other sort of carnal zeal which hath an ill Object though it may be a good Cause from whence it proceeds such as an ignorant zeal which proceeds from some love to that which men call Religion but falsly and so the Apostle saith Rom. 10. 2. I bear them witness that they have a zeal of God but not according to knowledge and such a zeal had Paul when he was a Pharisee he gives us an account of it Gal. 1. 12 14. How that beyond measure I persecuted the Church of God being more exceedingly zealous of the Traditions of my Fathers Paul was a man that never acted against his Conscience no not when he was a Pharisee he still acted according to his Light but when he was blinded with Pharasaical prejudices he wasted the Church of God and was exceedingly zealous for a false Religion This is such a zeal as possibly might have a tolerable Cause but it had a bad Object a zeal about the Dictates of a deluded Conscience and this zeal perniciosior est quo flagrantior is the more pernicious the more earnest it is it hath often raised confusions in the Church when men are led with a blind zeal they think for God if they be under then they make divisions if they get a top then they are persecuting and oppressing this is the zeal of a deluded Conscience In short zeal must have a right object otherwise it may be great but cannot be Good Pure and Holy 3. An other false zeal is when it hath no ill Object but it exceeds in the measure and degree and is far beyond the weight of the thing that it is laid out upon this is a superstitious a tristing zeal which runs out to Externals and is altogether employed about lesser things of Religion as the Pharisees Math. 23. 23. That made a great business about a small matter Titheing Mint and Anise and Cummin but neglected weighty Duties Faith Judgment Righteousness and the great things of the Kingdom of God The Apostle tells us Rom. 14. 17. The Kingdom of God is not meat and drink in being of this party and that Many all their care and strength of their souls runs out in matters of less importance and keeping up a Party and Faction in Religion we should first make Conscience of principal matters Superstitious scupulosity is always damagefull like those that come into a shop to buy a penny-worth of a Commodity and steal a pounds-worth O! they have a great zeal for lesser things when it runs out mightily about outward things either for that or against that and in the mean time they cherish the World Pride Envy carnal evil Affections that are destructive to and the bane of Godliness Secondly There 's a spiritual holy zeal which we may describe 1. By it's Cause 2. By it's Object 3. By it's Effects 4. By it's Use as to publick Reformation 5. As to it's Use as to Christians private Exercises to carry on the spiritual Life with fervour warmth and vigour 1. I am to speak of the Cause of it The true Cause of holy zeal is Love to God and what belongs to God Zeal is ferventis amoris gradus a higher degree of Love it is the fervor of Divine Charity We should mark still what spirit enflames the zeal that we have Every man is eaten up with one kind of zeal or another The zeal of the World eats up many Ps. 127. 2. They bereave their souls of good and all for a little pelf they work in the Fires they load themselves with thick clay The zeal of the Flesh inflames many they are mad upon carnal delights can let go all considerations so as they may fulfil their lusts they are consumed with these kind of zeales Another spirit should be working in us a zeal for God and that comes from an entire Love to God When the soul doth heartily and earnestly love God above all then there 's a strong desire of promoting Gods glory and interest there should be that spirit which breathes in our zeal and with this zeal should we be eaten up and spent Now they that love God will love all them which belong to God Friends have all things Common so it is between us and God the injuries done to him will be as grievous to us as if they were done to our selves Psal. 69. 9. For the zeal of thine house hath eaten me up and the reproaches of them that reproached thee are fallen upon me and the glory that comes to them is as acceptable as if some great benefit had come to us Act 15. 3. Declaring the Conversion of the Gentiles and they caused great joy unto all the Brethren O! this is great joy to a gratious soul when Gods interest thrives in the world O! this is that they would willingly hear spoken of their hearts are upon it when Gods interest stands or falls such an earnest desire of the glory of God which is the highest degree and measure of Love to God! 2. Let us speak of the Object of zeal In three things Gods interest lies in the World viz. His Truth His Worship and His Servants Now it is not enough to have zeal that we do not oppose any of these but they must be tenderly regarded and looked after and we must be affected with these things as we would with our own concernments When wrongs are offered to any of these either to Gods Truth his Worship or his Servants they must go more nearly to our hearts then any personal injuries done to our selves What we cannot remedy we must mourn for All these
and if they can excommunicate them and throw them out of the Church and kill them they think this is acceptable service to God All this is blind zeal Rom. 10. 2. The Apostle saith they have a zeal of God but not according to knowledge therefore there must be light as well as heat in this fire else it is not the fire of the Altar but of a common-hearth nay we must not only know the truth but also the worth of the Cause The Truth of the Cause that must be guided still by wisdom and we must observe all the seasonable circumstances in discovering our selves for God else it will produce strange evil and malignant effects which tends much to the dishonour of God and prejudice of the Gospel Look as a blind horse that is full of mettle but is always stumbling so they never act commendably and seasonably The Church of God hath had bitter experience in all ages of the sad effects of misguided zeal when it hath not been seasoned with knowledge and discretion to time things it hath tended much to the hindrance of Christ's Kingdom and the promotion of Satans interest in the World Christ in one place bids us to be wise as Serpents Math. 10. 16. And in another place not to give that which is holy to Dogs nor cast Pearls before Swine Matth. 7. 6. Otherwise we unprofitably sacrifice our selves and hinder the good which we would promote It was a grievous thing to Paul and prest upon his spirit to see all Ephesus given to Idolatry and mightily affected with Diana's Worship yet we read Acts 19. 10. He was two years at Ephesus before he spake against Diana he observed his season before he took the liberty and thought himself bound to speak against that false worship The Historian tells us of Andes a Persian Bishop that was under Varrans that having an unguided zeal got some Christians together to destroy the Temple of Fire which the Persians worshipped saith Theodoret not as he ought to do and what 's the issue Varrans the Emperour that was formerly favourable to the Christians when he saw they affected Power and would destroy the worship of the Country what then He was filled with cruel persecution he skinned the backs of some of the Christians and the faces of others drew splinters through their flesh used horrible torments which the Historian takes notice of and it conduced to the total suppression of the Christian Religion Therefore this wild-fire when it runs abroad without discretion and not being seasoned with Prudence it doth a world of harm to the Church of God We must observe the time circumstances and when it is most behoovful for the Glory of God the good of the Church and Cause we would promote See Videlius lib. 1. cap. 1. 2. This zeal also must be mingled with Compassion that as we mind the glory of God so we may pity deluded Souls When we are zealous against the sin we must have Commiseration of the sinner as knowing the weaknesses and prejudices of Education that are incident to humane nature This is to be sure most agreeable to Christs pattern he wept over Ierusalem that stood in a state of enmity to him Luke 19. 41. And when he was angry with the unbelief of his Country-men at the same time he was grieved at the hardness of their hearts Mark 3. 5. In Christs anger there was more of Compassion then of Passion And Samuel he mourned for Saul when he saw him no more 1 Sam. 15. 35. And the Apostle when he had zealously declaimed against the false Teachers he falls a weeping Phil. 3. 18. When we shew Love to God there should not be a hatred and ill will to the Persons of men but bewail their obstinacy and blindness Those that are all for Destruction and ready to call for Fire from Heaven they know not of what spirit they are of they have a fiery zelotick spirit but that which doth not become the temper of the Gospel 3. Zeal must be Constant Gal. 4. 18. The fire on the Altar must never go out we cannot be without it for a moment There are some that have a zeal for a fit but soon grow weary of it they are zealous in prosperity then they are forward and active for God but when it comes to trouble they give up all to oppositions On the contrary others in their Affliction and Low estate they have a warm sense of Religigion but when they are well at ease they are lost in the delights of the Flesh and drowned in the cares of the World and their zeal for God is checked And we see that some in their youth have a good savor and towardliness and seem to have a very tender Conscience but after their first heats are spent they are very careless and grow inordinate and all their zeal for God is gone Gal. 5. 7. Ye did run well who did hinder you that ye should not obey the Truth David was as zealous when the Crown was upon his head as when God humbled him and kept him low Many think zeal a cumber as they increase in worldly wisdom and so cast it off Nay in gross hypocrites you shall find this they will be zealous in good Company and as vain and loose in bad Let any grave servant of God be there they seem to kindle a great fire but assoon as they are gone they put it out again I but true zeal should always continue and be of a lasting and of an encreasing flame 5. To speak of the Private and Personal use of zeal what need we have to keep up a warm frame of heart towards God and heavenly things hitherto we have considered it as it respects Gods publique Interest it 's also of private use both in resisting of sin and perfecting holiness in the Fear of God 1. In resisting of Sin A man never doth any thing to purpose in purging out sin until he hath a zeal for God Rev. 3. 19. Be zealous therefore and repent Repentance is set on and quickned by zeal Doth zeal think you serve only to rectifie the disorders of other Men and not our own No certainly we should begin at home we should take care that God be exalted in our own hearts as well as his interest be not infringed in the world First our Saviour adviseth us to pluck out the beam out of our own Eyes Matth. 7. 5. Unless we be blameless our selves we can have no confidence or hope to do much good to others The first stone should be cast at our selves we should repent of our own sin our own lusts the plague of our own Heart if any thing we are apt to allow that is contrary to God this should be a great grief to us Unless we cleanse our own unclean sinks at home how can we hope for Reformation abroad Men cry out against publique vices as the Lapwing will croke abroad to draw off the Person from her own
and swallow a Camel it discovers the hypocrisie that lights upon the Professors of Religion full of hainous out-cries upon small things yet dash upon things that are against the fundamentals of the Covenant SERMON CLVII PSALM CXIX VER 140. Thy Word is very pure therefore thy servant loveth it THere are three things in this Verse 1. The Excellency of the Word Thy Word is very pure 2. Davids respect to it Thy Servant loveth it 3. The Connexion between both in the illative particle Therefore 1. The Excellency of the Word Thy Word is very pure That which we render very Pure signifieth tryed in the Fire and refined the Septuagint reads it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thy Word is set on Fire and so you may see it explained Psal. 12. 6. The words of the Lord are pure words like Silver tryed in a Furnace of Earth purified seven times The expression may import two things First the infallible certainty of the Word And secondly the exact purity First The Infallible certainty of the Word As Gold indureth in the Fire when the dross is consumed Vain conceits comfort us not in a time of trouble but the Word of God the more 't is tryed the more you will find the excellency of it the Promise is tryed as well as we are tryed in deep afflictions but when 't is so it will be found to be most sure In the Old Translation 't is thy word is proved most pure Psalm 18. 30. The Word of the Lord is tryed he is a buckler to all them that trust in him So Prov. 30. 5. The word of the Lord is pure he is a shield to all that trust in him as pure Gold suffers no loss by the fire so the promises suffer no loss when they are tryed but stand to us in our greatest troubles Secondly It notes the exact perfection of the Word there is no dross in Silver and Gold that hath been often refined so there is no defect in the Word of God 2. Here is Davids respect to the Word speaking of himself in the third person he saith Thy Servant loveth it The Children of God love the Word and the duty and Obedience it prescribeth so as effectually to follow it that 's love and none but that 3. Here is his reason for it Therefore I love it because 't is pure wicked men hate it and slight it for this very reason the Word of God so is pure that it ransacks their their Consciences and therefore they cannot indure it The Carnal mind is not subject to the Law of God neither indeed can be Rom. 8. 7. But the Saints do the rather imbrace it wicked men could wish it were less strict that it might be calculated to their turns but the Children of God love it for this reason Doctrine That Gods Children see such purity in his Word that therefore they value it and love it exceedingly The point will be made good by four Considerations 1. That the Word of God is pure 2. That this pure Word must be loved and esteemed by us 3. That we must not only love Gods Word but see why we love it 4. Among all the grounds and reasons of our love to the Word of God this is the most noble and excellent to love it for its purity For the first of these That the Word of God is pure yea as 't is superlatively expressed in the text 't is very pure that will appear in two respects 't is pure in it self and it maketh us pure 1. 'T is pure in it self because 't is an holy rule fit for God to give and us to receive exactly comprizing the whole duty of man We need not seek elsewhere for direction in order to true happiness Psal. 19. 8. The Commandment of the Lord is pure enlightening the Eyes as Mettal refined from all dross So here is not the least mixture of errour folly or falshood not the least Corruption or flaw to be found in it as in all other Books of humane Composure All other Writings come as short of the Scripture as a Coal doth of the Sun The whole Art and Design of this Holy Book is to advance the Spiritural and Heavenly Life and not to fashion our outward carriage a little for converse with men but to bring us into Fellowship and Communion with God and to direct us to do all things from holy principles in a holy manner to holy ends There is no dead fly in this box of Oyntment no blemish of Weakness and Imperfection it hath the manifest Impress of the Author left upon it and is the Copy of that exact holiness which is in God himself 2. The Word is very pure as it maketh us pure if we diligently attend unto it Ps. 119. 9. By what means may a young man cleanse his way By taking heed thereunto according to thy Word 'T is not said by what means may a young man guide his way as if he were yet to chuse or were as white paper indifferent to any impression But by what means shall a young man cleanse his way Mans heart naturally is a sink of sin and he delighteth to wallow in this puddle as Swine do in the Mire he hath gotten a tang and smatch of the old Adam Now is there no way to make his Heart and his Way clean Yes if he will take Gods Counsel and direct his Life according to the Word A young man that is in the heat and strength of his lusts he may be cured and cleansed Christ prayeth Iohn 17. 17. Sanctifie them by thy Truth thy Word is Truth The work is Gods but he doth it by the Truth or his Will revealed in the Word He hath reserved the power of his spirit for this dispensation and way of Institution of Mankind A moral Lecture may make a man change his Life but 't is the Word of God that changeth his Heart his spirit goeth along with his word So Iohn 15. 3. Now you are clean through the Word that I have spoken unto you The Word is the Instrument of purifying sinners and to get rid of their sins But how doth the word make us pure As 't is an appointed Instrument of the spirit and as 't is an accommodate instrument to such an end and purpose 1. 'T is an appointed instrument by which the spirit will work 1 Pet. 1. 22. Ye have purified your Souls in obeying the Truth through the Spirit 'T is the spirit of Christ that powerfully worketh it but yet in and by the Truth he worketh by his own means he will not joyn his assistance with other things The sum of what I would say is this 't was meet that God should give a rule to his Creatures or else how should they know his will and then 't was meet he should honour his Rule by owning it above all other Doctrines by the concomitant operation of his spirit that this might be a Constant Authentick proof of its divine Authority The
Quickning David ever and anon reneweth his request and he is loth to be denied and therefore before he saith Quicken me he saith Hear my Voice Doctrine II. The main Argument which Gods Children have to plead in Prayer is his own favour and Loving-kindness That 's David ' s Argument in the Text Hear my voice according to thy loving-kindness Doctrine III. The Mercy and Loving-kindness of God manifested and impledged in the Promises of the Gospel doth notably incourage us to ask help from him For David doth not only say according to thy Loving-kindness but according to thy Judgment For the first Point One Blessing which the Children of God do see a need often and earnestly to ask of God is Quickening Here I shall inquire 1. What is Quickening 2. Give you some Reasons why the Children of God do see a need so often and earnestly to ask it of God I. What is Quickening 1. By Quickening some understand restitution to Happiness for a Calamitous man is as one dead and buried under deep and heavy Troubles and their recovery is a life from the Dead or a reviving from the Grave so Quickning seemeth to be taken Psal. 71. 20. Thou which hast shewed me great and sore Troubles shalt quicken me again and bring me up from the depths of the Earth 2. Othersunderstand by Quickning the renewing and increasing in him the Vigour of his Spiritual Life That he beggeth that God would revive increase and preserve that Life which he had already given that it might be perfected and consummated in Glory That he might be ever ready to bring forth the habits of Grace into Acts. The Use which we should make of it is to press you 1. To be sensible of the temper of your Hearts and see whether you want Quickning yea or no The feeling of spiritual deadness argueth some life and sense yet left You have attained to so much of life and do retain it in such a measure as to be able to bemoan your selves to God Most observe their bodies but very few their souls if their Bodies be ill at ease or out of order they complain Men that go on in a Track of Customary Duties see no need of quickning therefore this humble sense is a good sign Matins and Vespers coldly run over never put us upon the feeling of indispositions but onely Duties done with some spirit and life As a Smith blows not the Bellows on cold iron or a dead Coal Who would seek quickning when not serious in the work They that go on in the cold wont of Duties never regard the frame of their Hearts 2. When you want quickning ask it of God He brought us into the state of Life at first and therefore every moment we must beg of him that he would quicken us that he would continue it and perfect his own work Cant. 1. 4. Draw me we will run after thee There is no running no preserving the Vitality of Grace without his renewed influence Psal. 22. 29. None can keep alive his own Soul Therefore when we find this deadness or decay of Life to whom should we go but to the fountain of Life to repair it no Creature doth subsist of itself or act of itself 3. Ask it earnestly David prefaceth a general Prayer before this request and saith hear my voice as loth to be denied Many ask it of Course rather use it as a mannerly form when they are entring upon holy Duties than a broken-hearted request See you desire it heartily Psal 119. 40. Behold I have longed after thy precepts quicken thou me in thy righteousness A mans heart is set upon it and will not sit down with the distemper as contented and satisfied with a dead frame of Heart quickning is for longing Souls that would fain do the work of God with a more perfect Heart 4. Expect this Grace in and through Jesus Christ who came down from Heaven for this end Ioh. 10. 10. I am come that they might have life and might have it more abundantly That was his end in coming into the World to procure life for his People and not only bare life but liveliness and comfort yea glory hereafter He died to purchase it for us Ioh. 6. 51. This is my flesh which I give for the life of the world His Incarnation and taking on him our Nature is the Channel and Conduit through which the quickning virtue that is in the Godhead is conveyed to us And his offering up himself in that nature by his Eternal Spirit doth purchase and merit the Application and Anâ—…unciation of this his quickning virtue to our souls and prepareth him to be fit meat for souls That same Flesh and Humane Nature of Christ that is offered up a Ransom to Justice is also the Bread of Life for souls to feed upon Souls are fed with Meditations upon his Death and Sufferings the Bread which he giveth by way of Application is his Flesh which he gave by way of Ransom every renewed act of Faith draweth an increase of Life from him 5. Consider how God worketh it in us The Father of Spirits loveth to work with his own tools These three agree in one The Spirit the Word and the renewed Heart The one is the Author the other the Instrument and the last the Object There is the Spirit acting and the Habit of Grace acted upon and the Word and Sacraments are the instruments and means For God will do it rationally and by a lively light God forceth not the nature of second causes against their own inclination 't is pleasing to him when we desire him to renew his work and to bring forth the actings of Grace out of his own seed and to blow with the wind the breath of his Spirit on the Gardens that the spices may flow out Cant. 4. 15. if one of these be wanting there can be no quickning Not the Spirit for he applyeth all and doth all in the Heart of Believers 't is from him that we have the new life of Grace and all the activity of it Gal. 5. 25. If we live in the spirit let us also walk in the spirit Then there must be a renewed Heart for God doth first infuse the principles of the new Life and gracious habits and power into the soul. Next he doth actuate those powers or stir them up to do what is good otherwise we do but blow to a dead Coal Then the Word and Sacraments come as Gods means which are fitted to work upon the New Creature These are full of spiritual Reason and suited to the sanctified understandings of Men and Women 6. Consider Gods loving-kindness how ready he is to grant this He will not deny the gift of the Holy Ghost to them that ask him Luk. 11. 13. 'T is an Argument not a Pari but a minore ad majus God is more able and willing to give than earthly Parents who are but half Fathers This is a spiritual and necessary Blessing
upon us yet made we not our Prayer before the Lord our God You defeat the Dispensation now you should make up your former Negligence when we are pressed hard on all hands it should put an edge upon our Prayers otherwise our Afflictions will turn to a sad account When God sendeth a Tempest after us and this will not bring us back to him we are summoned to make our Appearance and will not come Ioab would not come till Absalom set his Barley Field on fire Use 2. To encourage us to come to God in our Afflictions now is a time to put the Promises in suit to begin an Interest if we have none to make use of it if we have any then our weakness and nothingness is discovered that we may more apply our selves to God and a time of need will be a time of help Psal. 46. 1. God is a refuge for us a very present help in Trouble that is when Trouble is Trouble indeed then therefore we should call for it most earnestly a necessitous Creature is a fit Object for Mercy You expound Providences amiss if you think Afflictions are a casting off no they are Gods Voice calling you nay his Hand pulling you to him Blessed seasons to bring God and us together then Gods aim is accomplished Hos. 5. 15. I will go and return to my place till they acknowledge their offence and seek my face in their affliction they will seek me early Isa. 26. 16. Lord in trouble have they visited thee they poured out a Prayer when thy chastening was upon them Afflictions do not work thus simply for then they would work upon all but as accompanied with some drawings of the Spirit every condition is blessed when it bringeth you nearer unto God though Crosses be great Trials to any yet if they chase us to the Throne of Grace God is not wholly gone but hath left somewhat behind him to draw us to him It is Desertion in point of Felicity but not in point of Grace Doctrine III. One great request of the Children of God in Prayer is that he would Consider their Affliction This David promiseth in the first place So elsewhere Psal 132. 1. Remember David O Lord and all his afflictions he beggeth God to take notice of his Person and Condition So also Psal. 25. 18. Look upon â—…p affliction and my pain and forgive all my sins he beggeth that his groanes might not be passed over So Hezekiah Isa. 37. 17. where many words are used to this effect Incline thine ear O Lord and hear open thine eyes and see and hear all the words that Senacherib hath sent to reproach the living God If God would but take notice hear and see all would be well And as for personal Calamities so in Publick and Church cases Psal. 80. 14. Return we beseech thee O Lord God of Hosts look down from heaven and behold and visit this Vine If God will but come and see it is enough So in the Lamentations Chap. 1. 9. O Lord behold my affliction for the enemy hath magnified himself So again ver 11. See O Lord and consider for I am become vile Yet again ver 20. Behold O Lord for I am in distress Thus do the Children of God lay open their Miseries before him in Confidence of his Pity But why do the Children of God press this point so earnestly as if they did doubt of his Providence and Omnisciency God knoweth all things and can forget nothing I Answer 1. Though God be not ignorant and unmindful of our Condition yet we are to put him in Remembrance Isa. 62. 6. Ye that make mention of the Lord keep not silence and give him no rest till he establish and till he make Ierusalem a praise in the earth Christ is the Advocate we are Solicitours and Remembrancers for others and humble Supplicants for our selves indeed in so doing we do not put God in mind but put our selves in Mind of the Providence of God which is most graciously conversant about us in our aflicted Condition which is a great Comfort and Support to us The moving of God to Consider begets Faith in us that he will Consider and so we wrestle with God that we may catch an heat our selves 2. The sight of Misery is a real Argument it is clear that we are to use Arguments in Prayer for God dealeth with us as rational Creatures and as such we are to deal too with him Now among Arguments our Afflictions and Miseries are real ones they have a Voice to work upon his Pity and to move him to have Mercy upon us he being inclined to Compassion his eye doth affect his heart as a Beggar to move pity will not only plead with his Tongue but uncover his sores so do the Saints lay open their Misery and unfold their Estate before the Lord for God so loveth his People that the very show of their Miseries moveth him to help them Thus God saith that he would shew mercy to his People for I have seen with mine eyes Zech. 9. 8. God seeth our Case and every degree of our Trouble is marked by him which bringeth it the nearer to his heart yea Gods People themselves are comforted under their saddest sufferings by the Lords seeing and marking thereof Psal. 10. 14. Thou hast seen it for thou beholdest mischief and spight to requite it with thy hand it is enough to them thou hast seen it So Psal. 31. 7. I will be glad and rejoyce in thy mercy for thou hast considered my trouble and known my soul in adversities It is a mighty comfort that God hath an eye upon them in particular and hath friendly Affections towards them 3. The Lord is said to consider when he doth in effect declare his not forgetting or remembring us for good and therefore though God cannot but see and consider our Trouble yet we cannot rest satisfied with it till by real effects he maketh it evident that we may know and all the World may know that he doth consider us and regard our condition and this is that which Saints beg so earnestly that he would by some act or work experiment the Truth or make it appear that he hath heard and seen and taken notice of our sorrows Though the Saints believe his omnisciency and particular Providence yet they cannot rest satisfied til they feel it by some effect by giving real support or help in need according to Covenant and so must all the places before mentioned be interpreted Use. When we or the Church of God or any of the People of God are in any distress 1. Let us go to God and beg that we may see and the World may see that he hath regard to us in our sorrows and doth not wholly pass us over To this end impress upon your hearts the belief of these two things the Eye of his Pity and the Arm of his Power 1. The Eye of his Pity which is more then bare omnisciency it
when he taketh away when he emptieth and when he filleth us with Blessings a Child of God is of a strange temper he can fear him for his Mercies Hosea 3. 5. and praise him for his Judgments as in the Text it argueth a great measure of Grace to give Thanks to God at all times and for all things 1 Thes. 5. 17 18. Rejoyce ever more pray without ceasing in every thing give thanks Simply we cannot give thanks for Afflictions as Afflictions as we cannot pray for them nor joy in them but as they are a means of good to us A thankful frame of Heart bringeth meat out of the Eater incouragement out of the saddest Providences and taketh occasion to lift up it self in the praises of God even from those things which are matter of greatest discouragement and heartless dejection to others It seeth the hand of God working for good to him And then on the other side an Unthankful Repining Murmuring Spirit sowereth all our Comforts is ever querulous whether crossed or pleased it entertaineth Crosses with Anger and Blessings with Disdain 'T is hard to be in any Condition on this side Hell wherein we have not cause to praise God even in great Calamities either for their fruit and issue as our Souls are bettered and humbled by them Psalm 119. 65. Thou hast dealt well with thy servant according to thy word Wherein In giving him Faith and sensible and seasonable Correction Verse 67. and presently thou art good and dost good Verse 68. Or else for their Mitigation as to deem them not insupportable 1 Corinth 10. 13. That we are not Consumed Lament 3. 22. That not to the full merit of our Sins Ezra 9. 13. Thou hast punished us less then we have deserved That Comforts come along with them That our Afflictions do not exceed the measure of our Comforts 2 Corinth 1. 5. That we have a good God still who knoweth how to turn all to our Advantage Let us be perswaded he is well affected to us in Christ and we will take any thing kindly at his hand All this is spoken that poor murmuring Souls may not set out from so blessed a Work yea when other Arguments fail we may see the Wisdom Justice and Faithfulness of God in his sharpest Corrections Psalm 119. 75. I know that thy Iudgments are right and in Faithfulness thou hast afflicted me 'T is a great honour to God to speak good of his name when his hand is smart upon us Use. Let me press you now to three things First To the Work Secondly Frequency and Constancy herein Thirdly To suit often God's Word and Works together First To the work of praising God many are often complaining or begging but seldom praising or giving thanks Oh surely this should be more regarded not always taken up with complaints against our selves and supplications for Mercies but should sometime give Thanks and praise the Lord 't is the Noblest part of our work 't is nearest the work of Heaven As Love is the Grace of Heaven so Praise is the Duty then in Season 't is good to be preparing setting our Hearts in order for our eternal Estate 't is the work of Angels when we praise God we do the work of Angels The Angels according to the opinion of the Ancient Hebrews do every day sing praises to God and that in the Morning which they gather because the Angel said to Iacob Gen. 32. 26. Let me go for the day breaketh which place the Targum of Ierusalem thus explaineth Let me go for the Pillar of the Morning ascendeth and behold the hour approacheth that the Angels are to sing however that opinion be sure we are that the Angels ever bless God and laud his holy Name Isaiah 6. 1 2 3. The Angels cryed one to another holy holy holy is the Lord of hosts the whole earth is full of his glory They were blessing God for Creation then the Morning Stars sang for Joy Iob 38. 4 5 6. For the Nativity of Christ Luk. 2. 13 14. They apprehend more of Gods Excellency and Perfection in himself and in his Works than we do and are more sensible of his Benefits than we are Now if this be the work of Angels the highest and greatest of them surely this work should be more prized by us 't is Nobler than other Duties we serve God in our Callings but this work is a part of our Misery this Burden was laid upon Adam after his Fall that in the sweat of his Brows he should eat his Bread Gen. 3. 19. Though honest Labour be a part of our Obedience yet 't is also a part of our Trouble and Exercise There are Works of Righteousness as to give every Man his due these are Good Works but they concern the benefit of Man the good of Humane Society Whereas Praise is more immediately directed to the Honour of God There are Works of Mercy to relieve the Poor to help the Distressed to support the Weak to comfort the Afflicted these are good Works indeed and a very noble part of our service to be reckoned to our Thank-offerings as praise Heb. 13. 15 16. By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually that is the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his Name but to do good and to communicate forget not for with such sacrifices God is wellpleased 'T is Godlike to do Good and a more blessed thing to give than to receive Acts 20. 35. As God giveth to all and receiveth of none but still this redoundeth to Men. There are opera cultus the fourth sort of Works Works of Worship Internal as humbling our Soul repenting of our Sins and asking Pardon these are good Works indeed but such as imply our Misery and Imperfection External as Prayer Hearing and Reading and other Acts of Communion with God but when we give Thanks this is more Noble In other Duties God is bestowing something on us but here in our way we bestow something upon God In Prayer as Beggars in Hearing as Scholars and Disciples we come to expect something from him here we come to put Honour upon God in our way 't is a kind of Recompence or paying our Debts to him by Word or Deed. Now the Reasons why Men are so backward to this Work are I. Because we have so little of the Love of God Self-love puts us upon Supplication but the Love of God upon Praise and Thanksgiving 'T is a Token of great Love to Praise God without Ceasing We are eager to have Blessings and then forget to return and give God the Glory II. And partly Neglect of Observation We do not gather up Matter of Thanksgiving Colos. 2. 4. Continue in prayer and watch in the same with thanksgiving We should continually observe Gods Answers and Visits of Love Manifestations of himself to the World The Reason then why we have no more pleasure in Praising God is because we observe not so heedfully as we
Lords Day but minds the Will for the Deed not the Deed for the Will whether Willingly or Unwillingly God dealeth with us as rational Creatures if your Ox draw your Plough and your Ass carry his Burden you care not much whether it be done willingly or unwillingly but God dealeth with us as obliged and looketh that love should constrain us and influence our actions and God dealeth with us as renewed Creatures that have a suitableness to their Work Heb. 8. 10. Psal. 40. 2. When rather from him than with him he delights greatly in Gods Commandments Psal. 112. 1. Delights to know believe and obey Gods Word and God expects it from us because of the pleasures that do accompany well-doing Prov. 3. 17. The speculation of a worthy Truth affects the Mind but Practice doth more as more intimately acquainted with it Use. II. It shews 1. How far they are from the Temper of Gods People that dispute away Duties rather than practise them Cavil at their Work rather than readily accept it 2. They do not love the law that are alwayes full of Excuses and pretend occasions to neglect the service of God excuses are always a sign of a naughty heart the sinners non vacat is indeed non placet Luk. 14. 18. They all began to make excuses If we did not want a heart we should not want an occasion to manifest our respects to God 3. It shews how far they are from the Temper of Gods People that are easily discouraged with difficulties love will make us break thorough all 2 Cor. 5. 14. Love hath a constraining force counts nothing too dear to be parted with for Gods sake they that are weary of well-doing they are out of their Element as they in Malachy enquired When will the Sabbath be over They that brought but a sorry Lamb cryed out Oh what a weariness Again they that love the law are not troubled about the strictness of the law but the unsuitableness of their own hearts Gods Children are grieved for that weariness and uncomfortableness they find in Gods service Glad of any inlargement of Heart Lust is grievous but not the Commandement Rom. 7. 24. O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me not from the law but from the body of this death But others when the Truth shineth round about them they receive it not in the love thereof Doctrine II. Those that love the law shall have great peace let me prove this First They shall have Peace Secondly Great Peace First They shall have Peace I. Because the God of Peace is their God they are assured of his love and favourable Acceptance tranquillus deus tranquillat omnia If God be with us who can be against us If he smileth on us 't is enough though all the World should be against us for 't is Gods Wrath that maketh us Miserable and Gods love that maketh us Happy II. Jesus Christ who is the Prince of Peace is their Saviour Isa. 9. 6. He hath made Articles of Peace between God the Father and Us and drawn them into a Covenant of Grace called the Covenant of his Peace Isa. 54. 10. And this founded upon his Bloud which is the price given to purchase our Peace and to set all things at rights between God and Us. Col. 1. 20. Isa. 53. 5. Having made Peace between God and Us No less would serve the turn compleatly to satisfie the Justice of God for our wrong and to purchase his Favour for us III. The Spirit who is a Spirit of Peace Gal. 5. 22. 't is one of his fruits he worketh it in us as a Sanctifier and as a Comforter 1. As a Spirit of Sanctification he doth dispossess Satan and subdueth that Rebellious Disposition that is naturally in us against God and maketh us accept the offer of Friendship and Reconciliation with God and to yield up our selves servants to righteousness unto holiness and then accordingly to walk as People that are at amity with God 1. Your first Resignation in Faith and Repentance is a ground of Peace and wrought in us by the Spirit Rom. 15. 13. Now the God of peace fill you with all joy and peace in believing that ye may abound in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost Together with our Faith and in and by our Faith the Holy Ghost worketh this Joy and Peace When we come to sue out our Pardon in his Name to receive the Attonement and to resign up our selves to Gods use then is the Foundation laid Give the hand to the Lord 2 Chron. 30. 8. 2. This Peace is confirmed by holy walking in the Spirit or perfecting Holiness through the power of the Holy Ghost Gal. 6. 16. As many as walk according to this rule peace and mercy be upon them Ier. 6. 16. Ask for the good old way and walk therein and you shall find peace to your souls Keep close to God and you will have peace otherwise not Peace with God and thine own Conscience is a very tender thing you had need be chary of it if you grieve the Spirit you will find it to your bitter Cost when sinful dispositions are indulged and nourished our peace is beclouded and hangeth on uncertain terms 2. As a Comforter whose office it is to give us a sense of Gods Love and to help Conscience to judge of our state and actions The Spirit representeth God as a Father and sheweth us what things are given us of God and dissipateth and scattereth all the black thoughts that are in the Soul Isa. 57. 19. I create the fruit of the lips to be peace Peace is a Sovereign Plaister God maketh it stick and then all the World cannot deprive them of this peace Creation and Annihilation belong to the same power the World can never give nor take 't is Gods work and he will maintain it Secondly It shall be great Peace as to the Nature and Degree of it as was before explained 1. For the Nature of it 't is not an ordinary peace but of an higher Nature Ioh. 14. 27. My peace I leave with you my peace I give unto you not as the world giveth give I unto you Let not your hearts be troubled Wherein doth it differ from the Worlds peace The Worlds peace is oftentimes in sin a concord in Evil a Lethargy portending sadder Troubles but this is an holy peace Prov. 3. 17. That 's a crasy peace that is soon broken and distorted depending on the uncertainty of present affaires and the mutable Affections of men the more secure they are the sadder trouble at hand but this is an everlasting peace which we have now in the way and shall have in death and then for ever The Worlds peace is outward 't is but at best a freedom from outward troubles when they are at enmity with God but this is a peace with God himself Prov. 16. 7. The Worlds peace pleaseth the outward man but this is a solid Soul-satisfying peace a
535 Affections must be purged and quickned p. 532 Affections sensitive differ from the solid Complacency of the Soul p. 85 Affections when strong are very painful p. 121 Affections strong constant and earnest towards Gods Word a mark of a Child of God p. 121. 898. expressed by 1. Opening the mouth 2. Panting 3. Longiug p. 897 Affections spiritual their Objects End and Properties p. 121 122 Affections carnal to be avoided p. 566 Affection to Gods Word for its innate Goodness and Truth p. 623 Affections false and slashy p. 122 Affections not nullified but rectified by Grace p. 807 884 Affections of the mind usually expressed by Words proper to the bodily senses p. 671. 897 Affections follow apprehensions p. 685. 234 They are good or evil according to their objects p. 1006 Affections spiritual will take all occasions to Remember Gods Name p. 374 Four things about our affections considerable p. 252. 253 Afflictions God is always just in them p. 509. 510. Yet Patient and Moderate p. 510 511 Afflictions long and sharp usually attended with either 1. Impatience or 2. Revenge against instruments or 3. The using indirect means for redress or 4. Despondency or 5. Questioniug our Interest in God or 6. Atheistical and despairing Thoughts p. 555 556. 465. 835 836. 843 Afflictions sanctified advance holy Thoughts p. 526 Prayer p. 714. They are good in what respects p. 484 Afflictions may be long and grievous before deliverance comes p. 150 157. 537. 835. 711 712 713. Three Agents in the Afflictions of Gods People 1. God 2. Satan 3. Wicked men p. 537 538. In afflictions Gods end is to reduce us into the right way p. 463 464. To humble and purge us 711 712. 510 Afflictions of great use to the converted and unconverted p. 464 465. 510 Why God afflicts his Children so sorely p. 711 712 Afflictions their necessity p. 157. 591. 487. And Utility p. 461 462 463 464. 484. 711 712. Afflictions encrease our Comforts in Gods Word p. 888 Afflictions though great are alleviated by the Consolations of the Word p. 148 Choisest Saints have their afflictions p. 965 Afflictions are great Priviledges p. 424. 481 Afflictions work not for good of their own Nature but by the Spirit of God p. 465 466. 487 They should bring us to God by Prayer p. 968 Age one age sees more then another p. 650 Age brings wisdom by experience p. 650 Aged ought to be reverenced p. 654 Aggravation of sin to Vow and not perform it p. 704 Allow we must not allow our selves in the least sin p. 34 Aides of Grace either necessary or liberal p. 221 Alphonsus King of Arragon his Counsellours p. 148 Allurements and Terrors of the VVorld means to draw us from God p. 1031 All sufficiency of God encourageth 1. Our dependance on him 2. Our subjection to him p. 587 588 It makes him the Souls only portion p. 385 Ancients VVho p. 650 Anger wrath envy how they differ p. 520 Anger of God when discovered bespeaks Holy awe and dread p. 808 Anger at the Violation of Gods Law a Note of true Zeal p. 853 Anger and hatred of Sin how they differ p. 878 Anger against the sin and pity to the sinner shews a well tempered zeal p. 931 Anger and Passion in discourse renders it evil p. 1064 Anguish of Spirit even in gracious souls caused by great Troubles partly from Nature Partly from Grace p. 884 Answers of Prayers to be duly observed p. 168 and why Reasons ibid. p. 905 906 907 Answer of Prayer either in kind or value p. 169 167. 908 909 Gods Children are earnest for answers of Prayer p. 905 Answer of a good Conscience what it signifies p. 699. Answer of Prayer neglected proceeds from either 1. Heedlessness 2. Atheism 3. Distrust 4. Disesteem of Gods favour p. 906 Great evil effects of such neglect p. 906 907 Antecedency of Gods work before Mans work p. 221 Antinomians who deny the Law to be a Rule p. 4 Antiperistasis in grace as well as Nature p. 871 Antiquity should not sway against Truth p. 650 Apostacy one ground of it the not Receiving the Truth in the love of it p. 67. Vid. Distrust As also from our inbred Corruption p. 803 Dissuasives against Apostacy p. 871. 341 342 Evil consequences of Apostacy p. 210. 342. Apostacy is bestial and brutish p. 1100 Apostacy caused from 1. Errors 2. Persecutions 3. Scandals p. 343. Vid. Back-sliding Defection Appeal to God on a double account p. 522 No appeal from Gods Judgement p. 38 Many pretend to serve God that cannot appeal to him p. 306 Appetite follows life and holy desires spring from a new Nature p. 304 Application of mercy personally called coming to God p. 517 Application of the Word by Faith p. 768 Application of Providence to their own selves a mark of Gods Children p. 811 Application of Gods mercies to our own souls p. 318. 517 Effectual application of mercy p. 517 Approbation of God a great Comfort under reproach p. 301 Approbation of Gods Law by the sanctified Judgment p. 34. 752 Means to bring our hearts to approve Gods Law p. 877 Approbation of purity without chusing it is not sufficient p. 861. 708. 223 Approbation of that in our selves which we condemn in others an evil character p. 3 Arbitrary God is so in gifts not in Judgments p. 934 Arts and Sciences not comparable to Gods word for the obtaining of true VVisdom p. 650 Arrogance in discourses odious to God p. 1064 Ascribe all to God p. 43. 552 Arguments to prevail with God 1. From his mercy 2. His Truth p. 941 Ask Gods Counsel his Leave and Blessing p. 31 Ask of God saving knowledge of Divine things p. 895 Grounds of it ibid. How Temporal deliverance is to be asked p. 923 Ashamed of God Christ and his Gospel Reasons of it Arguments against it p. 311 Assaults of Satan make assisting grace necessary p. 780 Assurance strengthned by perseverance p. 342 Astray the best of Saints apt to go astray p. 1102 Reasons 1. Present imperfection 2. Remainders of Corruption p. 1102 1103. Not totally and finally p. 1106 Assistance of God necessary to preserve both habitual and actual grace p. 789 Attributes of God in a Conflict about sinners p. 320 Atheistical persons are great deriders of Saints for 1. Their Faith 2. Obedience p. 336 Atheism to observe Gods signal Judgements on the wicked a Cure of it p. 798 A man may have Atheism enough to question Providences when ther 's Faith enough to justifie God p. 836 Avenger God is the Avenger of breach of Vows Oaths and Covenants p. 704. 705. Averseness of the heart from God a Cause of the delaying of Repentance p. 408 Averseness of Heart in coming to God makes us need not only leave to come but power to come p. 953 Audience of God how manifested how procured p. 166 St. Augustines Prayer about the Scriptures That he might neither be deceived in them nor deceive others by
not allowed a ground of Comfort p. 37 All Sin must be refrained 1. notorious and plausible 2. inward and outward 3. pleasant as well as not pleasant 4. sins against both Tables 5. great and small p. 660 661 Sin weakens both Grace and Comfort p. 663 1040 Heynousness of sin in breaking Gods Law striking at Gods being contradicting his Soveraignty p. 686 Sin removed 1. in Justification 2. Sanctification p. 185 Sin its Dominion p. 917 918 919 920 Differences of Sins p. 920 921 Sin brings trouble two ways 1 meritoriously 2. effectively p. 315 316 Sincere prayer must be sincere as well as fervent p. 902 909 910 Sincerity in prayer implies 1. Seriousness 2. Affectionateness 3. prevalency of those affections 4. universal Care to please God p. 903 Sincerity of Sanctification what it is p. 5 Marks of Sincerity 1. Carefulness to practice what we know 2. inquisitiveness to know more of our duty 3. to stand in awe of Gods Word p. 6 11 It makes God judge of its heart p. 627 Sincerity may be accompanied with failings p. 11 Sincerity and Integrity constitute the whole Heart p. 15 It aims at universal Obedience p. 33 59 It is to be asked of God with earnestness p. 530 It gives confidence with God p. 6 533 It keeps us good in bad times p. 866 Two Notes of Sincerity 1. the manner 2. the principle of Obedience p. 1042 Sinking under Burdens by looking on the bare Affliction p. 591 Prevented by considering that God is 1. Wise 2. Just 3. Good in afflicting p. 884. 885 Sinners the greatest when converted are the greatest mourners for the sins of others p. 930 Reasons ibid. Slander not only in the Deviser but the Receiver p. 141 299 300 Sleep there 's a surfeit in sleeping as well as eating p. 926 Slight prayers argue low thoughts of God p. 899 We are apt to be slighty in our prayers p. 915 Sluggish prayers teach God to deny p. 29 899 Snares of the Devil and wicked Men of several kinds p. 735 736 What use we are to make of these Snares p. 137 Song Gods word is our song in the house of our Pilgrimage p. 358 359 vid. Rejoycing Sorrow wasts the natural Spirits p. 554 176 It must be proportionable to sin p. 405 Sorrow of Gods Children greater than others why p. 177 Sorrow affect solitude joy company p. 503 Soveraignty of God must be submitted to p. 119. 789 God sometimes forsakes his people out of Soveraignty p. 51 Soveraignty of God in distributing wisdom p. 648 653 Soul is the Man p. 43 1093 God must be served with the Soul as well as the Body p. 1043 1044 Soul-Blessings are special Blessings p. 43 they are pledges of eternal Blessings ibid. to take ones Soul in his hand what the phrase imports p. 726 Souls life is Gods favour p. 518 Soul is 1 fons actionum ad extra 2. terminus actionum ad intra p. 1044 Soundness of heart what it is p. 530 531 532 Speedy turning to God necessary why p. 402 403 Pressed in general and particular p. 410 Speeding with God should make us come again p. 168 How to speed with God p. 162 H. Spirit is a spirit of Peace 1. as a Sanctifier 2 as a Comforter p. 1027 Spirit of God our Guide as the word is our Rule p. 8 152 153 Spirits work to draw the heart from earthly things to God p. 3 H. Spirit beareth witness to the Gospel p. 9 H. Spirit gives help as Christ gives leave to come to God p. 15 Spirit VVater and Blood how they bear witness p. 9 Spirit Word and holy Heart agree p. 934 H. Spirit gives 1. direction how to apply the Rule 2. to make a good choise 3. to act Grace 4 to manage civil Affairs p. 31 H. Spirit gives Liberty 1. from slavish Fears 2. from potent Lusts p. 304 H. Spirit encreaseth our delight in Gods Commandements p 316 H. Spirit the Author the Scripture the Means of Light p. 694 Spiritual seeing requires 1. that the object be clear 2. that the Organ be right p. 694 Spiritual Blessings call for praise why p 1057 Spiritual Blessings give us a heart to praise God temporal Blessings only give us an occasion p. 43 Spiritual sense and Life p. 671 672 673 It differs from the bare understanding p. 673 Spiritual Delight exceeds that in worldly things p. 87 593 There are three spiritual Senses chiefly 1. seeing 2. tasting 3. feeling p. 671 672 Spiritualizing common and earthly things p. 90 763 Springs of Comfort all in God by the word p. 514 Stability of the earth an Emblem of the Stability of Gods word p. 582 and of his Being 588. Stability of Gods Testimonies p. 889 890 620 956 957 Stability of Gods word opposed to the Creatures Vanity p. 618 620 Stablishing of the word to us two ways p. 284 how to get the word stablisht to us p. 287 288 Statutes of God what what it is to seek them p. 987 Strangers on Earth the Condition of all Gods Children p. 114 Men may be strangers on earth as to their Condition who are not so in Affection p. 114 Why Gods Children are and account themselves to be Strangers p. 114 115 116 How to carry our selves as Strangers in this world p. 118 119 Straights he that makes Conscience of Gods Commands may boldly seek help from God in his straights p. 1079 In all straights we are to delight in Promises p. 1035 Strength natural and spiritual both may fail as they are ours p. 538 Strength spiritual what it is how given out how God is concern'd therein p. 181 182 How to get spiritual Strength p. 182 183 Study the word but take God for your teacher p. 42 Arguments to study the Word p. 652 653 Study the word 1. not out of curiosity 2. nor meerly to be able to teach others 3. nor meerly for delight c. but in order to practice p. 68 68 Study Gods Name 1. what 2. how Stumbling preservatives against it p. 1032 v. scandal Stupidity under the Rod a great evil p. 159 It argues Stupidity to be careless in Prayer p. 906 907 Stupidity not to be affected with Gods Judgments on others p. 812 Subjection to God to be chosen before liberty p. 707 Subjection to God pressed from two grand Motives p. 308 309 Submission to Providence advanced by thanksgiving for received Mercies p. 421 Submission to Gods disposing and commanding Will p. 588 Submission to God 1. for the mercy 2. for the time of the mercy 3. for the way and means of it p 826 Suffering for Christ very reasonable who suffered such hard things for us p. 870 Suffering better than sinning p. 148 525 842 731 732 928 Sufferings are like to be long 1. when Reformation is rejected 2. when Deliverance would be a greater mischief 3. when there is a damp on the Spirit of Prayer 4. when god is about to punish us and we go not about to reconcile our selves to