reason for That the whole business of Religion should be signified by this expression of the Truth and that upon these following Considerations First By reason of the analogy and correspondency and near agreement which is betwixt Truth it self and Holiness betwixt the Doctrine of Religion and the practise of it for such there is all the Articles of Faith they have a respect to the framing of the heart and to the ordering of the life and conversation they serve not only to inform the judgment but likewise to better the whole man Therefore the mystery of Faith is called the mystery of Godliness And every Divine Truth it has some grace whereunto it refers in the use and improvement of it As the Incarnation of Christ to humility and self-abasement The Passion of Christ to Mortification and crucifying of lusts The Resurrection to spiritual quickening and raising us up to newness of life The Ascension to Heavenly-mindedness and the affecting of things above And so of the rest Now because it does so therefore is the one well denominated from the other The life of Religion from the Doctrine of it as closing and complying with it and as sutable and agreeable to it as indeed it is Christian conversation it is consonant to Christian knowledg Secondly Religion is called the Truth not only as agreeing with it but likewise as issuing from it and produced by it for so also it is All which are regenerate and born again they are begotten and born of Truth as the conveyance hereof unto them Jam. 1.18 of his own will begat he us with the word of truth that we should be a kind of first fruits of his Creatures And 1 Cor. 4.15 For in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the Gospel And 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 Still the Word and Truth of God is made the instrument of our spiritual birth and regeneration whence Believers are also said to be of the Truth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Joh. 3.19 Thirdly It is called the Truth Emphatically in opposition to all false and formal worship and service of God which is abroad in the world There are other Religions abroad but there 's no truth of Religion but in Christianity and the service of God in the Gospel this is to worship God so as he will be worshipped in spirit and in truth Joh. 4.24 If so be ye have heard him and have been taught by him as the truth is in Jesus there 's no truth to be found any-where but in him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says Oecumenius upon the place he calls Godliness Truth ungodliness being a spurious business For these and the like reason is Christianity exprest by the Truth as most significant of it This therefore still teaches us to hold and imbrace the Truth and to keep close unto it For so much Truth so much Religion and so much Truth of Religion Look how far we keep close to our Principles so far forth shall we regulate our practise and have ourlives in all probability to be that which they should be an erroneous judgment will have either a scandalous or an hypocritical life annext unto it and following upon it either profaneness or at the best formality is the consequent of unsoundness in Religion that 's out of all question that so we may take heed of it and have a care to keep our judgments clear and right in us and not tainted and defiled with any stain in this particular especially as to the substantial part of Religion and the worship of God and the main scope and drift of the Gospel let us be sure to have our minds clear here and not swerving or departing from the Truth for it so we cannot possibly serve God a right We may it may be abound in outward duties and do somewhat which belongs to the outward man but the obedience of the first Commandment which is the more inward and immediate part of Gods Worship when as upon the knowledg of God we love him and fear him and rejoice in him and trust in him and set him up in our souls and spirits This we cannot do whiles we have not right opinions of him nor do not abide in his Truth We may be moral and civil and do some duties of the second Table upon such kind of Principles but we cannot be spiritual and gracious and sanctified and religious indeed and do that which we do in Religion with reference and respect to God whiles we have not the right notion and apprehension of Religion in us Religion it is a matter of Truth and so it is here exprest unto us by the Apostle when he means that he says this And so much briefly for the phrase and expression Now to come further to the Thing it self and to take it now in its proper meaning and the spiritual drift of the Holy Ghost in this place We can do nothing against the Truth that is We can do nothing against Religion and the progress of Christianity in the world This as Christians and especially as Christian Ministers we cannot do We can do nothing whereby Piety and Godliness may suffer any wrong by us or any prejudice and disadvantage from us they are such as are contrary to the bent and scope and principles of any who themselves are religious or have any spark of Godliness in them There are two ways especially whereby any thing is done against Religion the one is in a way of Discouragement and the other is in a way of Disparagement In a way of discouragement and disheartening of those which are good and in a way of disparagement and scandal towards those which are evil Now those which are good Christians will be shy of doing any thing against Religion in either respects First In a way of discouragement so as to dishearten those which are good they will be shy and wary of this and so they ought to be Whatever is done in this case against Christians it is done against Christ And whatever is done against the professors of the Truth is against the Truth it self We must not break the bruised reed nor quench the smoking-flax nor discourage the beginnings of goodness in any in whom they seem to appear but nourish them and cherish them and promote them all we can The contrary hereunto is that which is discernable in too many persons who many times by their overliness and harshness and rigidness which is exprest by them do drive away those from Religion and the profession of it who make fair proffers towards it and it may be have made some progress in it this is none of the spirit of Christ Secondly In a way of Disparagement and scandal as there are many which prejudice Religion so likewise such as profess but live not up to it such as bring an ill report upon Christianity and the ways of
they still put all spirituality in the outside of Duties themselves reckoning them for the only spiritual men in the world which are mured and shut up in a Cloyster and are imployed in their superstitious Devotions and practices of will-Will-worship and in the mean time wirhdrawing themselves from all serviceableness and usefulness to the world and places wherein they live This is not to walk in the spirit but rather in the flesh We must therefore take a further account of this business than as yet we have done and here to walk in the spirit will be as I in part intimated before to be heavenly and spiritually minded in our whole course and conversation Whatever the things themselves be so not sinful which we are occupied about let them be matters but of our ordinary callings yea even lawful recreations themselves a gracious heart will be spiritual in them and so we ought to be when we do every thing as in God's Presence to his Glory and as accountable to him for whatever we do then do we indeed walk in the spirit when we are in the fear of the Lord all the day long Prov. 23.17 Which makes up the first Explication understanding by the spirit the spirit as bestowing grace as subjected in us Secondly By the Spirit we may here understand his motions and suggestions as objected to us Walk in the spirit that is walk according to the guidance and dictate and moderation of the Spirit of God And this again in two particulars more First In the directions of the Spirit Walk as the Spirit of God inclines you Secondly In the Consolations of the Spirit Walk as the Spirit of God comforts you and gives encouragement to you First Walk in the spirit that is after the directions of the spirit as the Spirit of God inclines you be sure and careful of that It is the blessed and happy advantage of those which are the servants of God that as they have the Spirit of God working grace in them at first so they have also the same gracious spirit still exciting and provoking and stirring up that grace which he has wrought in them for following times Thou shalt hear a voice behind thee saying This is the way walk ye in it c. Isa 30.21 Now then are we said to walk in the spirit whensoever we listen and hearken hereunto and move our selves accordingly when we do that which the spirit commands us and provokes us to do and when we shun that which the spirit forbids us and takes us off from not only in the word but in the conscience wherein he does also apply himself to us and that in a suitableness and correspondency unto the word look what he commands in the one he suggests in the other and never contrary or opposite thereunto whereby it may be discerned whether it be the Spirit of God or no. There are many who sometimes pretend to follow the dictates and motions of the spirit when-as it is rather the propensities and inclinations of their own corrupt and carnal hearts but such as these delude them This is the priviledg and duty of Christians to be guided by a better spirit than their own even the Holy Spirit to suffer his motions and suggestions to take place in their hearts and to rule and bear sway in them This we should labour still to do upon all occasions whenever we find any stirrings of good in us presently to close with them and to improvethem all we can toturn the motions of the spirit to resolutions on our behalf and not only into resolutions but into practice which is the life and vigor of all This is to walk in the spirit And this is that which we should apply our selves unto in obedience to this command or counsel which is here given us in the Text especially such amongst us as have any thing more of this Spirit of God dwelling in us the more that any partake of the spirit the more it concerns them to walk in the spirit and to yield themselves up to the Power and Authority of the Spirit upon them because that such as these have greater and larger opportunities than other have As for other men which are but of common and ordinary principles yet living within the bosom of the Church and there partaking of the means of grace there are very few of them except they be such as are desperately concluded but they have now and then some kind of stirrings and workings of the Spirit of God moving in their consciences whereby he diverts them from evil and puts them on to the doing of good and it concerns such as these accordingly to walk in the spirit and to follow those motions and suggestions which are thus offer'd and tender'd unto them yea but now as for the children of God which are regenerate and born again and have saving grace wrought in their hearts such as these they are seldom without them but are frequently and continually exercised and inured unto them And therefore for them not to walk after them is a matter of great indignity which is hereby offered to so holy a Spirit and such as does not pass in them without some trouble and affliction upon their own spirit usually for it that so they may take the greater heed of being guilty or neglectful herein at another time as is manifest from the experiences of many which have made complaint in this partiular and should be a caution and warning to all the rest We should take heed of grieving the Holy Spirit of God by refusing his gracious Motions and Applications of himself to our hearts but walk in the spirit that is first after the spirits directions as the Spirit of God inclines us Secondly Walk in the spirit that is walk in the spirits Consolations as the Spirit of God comforts and incourages you This is such a kind of walking in the spirit as the Scripture does sometimes make mention of as Act. 9.31 it is said there of the Churches That they walk'd in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost This is also our duty to do and though perhaps it be not that which in this place is chiefly intended yet neither is it altogether excluded it is the special office of the spirit to be a comforter therefore to walk in the spirit is to walk in his comforts We find among other fruits of the spirit which are reckoned up here in this Chapter Joy is named for one as that which does belong thereunto and certainly we do then walk in the spirit when we do preserve this joy in our selves When we labour to keep terms of peace and reconcilement betwixt God and us from whence our hearts may be filled with comfert When the Consolations of God are not small with us but we do value them and make much of them and do not easily do any thing which may forfeit them or provoke God to take them
and given up to besides that natural Darkness which is in all unregenerat Persons yea and regenerate likewise by Natural There is a Super natural and Judicial which some especially in the just Judgement of God have inflicted upon them Thus Rom. 1.28 It is said of the wicked Gentiles That as they did not like to retain God in their Knowledg God gave them up to a reprobate Sense or mind void of Judgment to do those things which are not Convenient Thus in all these respects are wicked men in Darkness Darkness it is the privation of light And so it is in such kind of Persons now we must know what Light this is Namely the Light of the Spirit As for the common Light of Nature the Light dime Light of Reason that even Natural men may have and in some Competent measure as the Heathen Philosophers had many of them in great Abundance But this Light of Grace and of the Spirit it is such as they are not acquainted with nor know not what it is This accordingly gives us an account of so many Stumblings and Miscarriages as there are in the World Here 's an account of the Diversity of Errours and false Opinions in matters of Judgment And here 's an account also of the Diversity of Outrages and Wickedness in matters of Practise whence there are so many Abomintions as do continually raigne amongst us it is from hence that men are in Darkness There is a mist of Spiritual Blindness which hath Surprised them and Over-spread them and therefore it is that they fall into such Miscarriages as these are And this for the Darkness of the way that Darkness which wicked men are incompast with here in this present life The Second is the Darkness of the End That Darkness which they are subject unto in another World This is of two sorts either the Darkness of Death or Judgment First Of Death that is common to all both good and bad And it is represented in Scripture to us under the notion of Darkness Thus in Job 10.21.22 Before I go whence I shall not return Even to the Land of Darkness and the shadow of Death A Land of Darkness as Darkness it self and of the shadow of Death without any order and Where the Light is as Darkness Thus it is spoken of the Grave and the condition of Bodies lying there So Job 17.13 If I wait the Grave is mine House I have made my Bed in the Darkness And so likewise in Eccles 11.8 The days of Darkness they shall be many It is spoken still of abode in the Grave this is common to all viz. The Darkness of Death The Second Is the Darkness of Judgment and Hell it self which is call'd in Scripture Vtter Darkness This is that which is especially proper to the Wicked Bind him hand and foot and cast him into utter Darkness sayes Christ Matth. 22.13 And Psal 9.17 The Wicked shall be turned into Hell and all the Nations that forget God This is that which is made to be their Portion And so much for the First particular viz. The state of Darkness which the Wicked and Vngodly of the World are Exposed unto The Second is the state of Silence in order to this Darkness They shall be silent in Darkness Thus it may admit of a various Emphasis which is involv'd in it we may reduce it to these following Particulars First That Grief and Horrour and perplexity of mind which shall seize upon them in this Condition Silence it is an attendant upon Grief and Astonishment in the Extremities of it Curae leves loquunter ingentes stupent so that where Grief is any thing moderate there it expresses it self in speech where 't is Excessive there 't is stupifying and Obstructive Vox faessi hucibus A mans words there stick in his Teeth and therefore great Grief is exprest to us in Scripture by Silence in sundry places thus Esay 15.1 The burden of Moab Because in the night Ar of Moab is laid waste and brought to silence because in the night Kir of Moab is laid waste and brought to silence Brought to silence that is Cut off and destroyed as the word Nidhmah also signifies Destruction it is signified by Silence So Jer. 8.14 Why do ye sit still Assemble your selves and let us enter into the defenced Cities and be silent there for the Lord our God hath put us to silence and given us waters of Gall to drink because we have sinned against the Lord. Hath put us to silence that is hath brought us into a distracted Condition so that we know not what to do or say So Jer. 47.5 Baldness is come upon Gaza Ashkelon is silent and Cut off Where Baldness and Silence are put for Sadness and Grief in the Philistians Again Lament 2.10 The elders of the Daughters of Sion set upon the Ground and kept silence Namely so far overcome with Grief as unable by speech to abate it And Job's Friends in simpathy with him in his great Grief thus sat down and spake not a word unto him in seaven days c. This shall be the Condition of Wicked men former or later they shall be full of Horrour and Grief unexpressible They that now are full of Jocunness and Joviality and Clamour and make a noise in the World there is a time a coming when they shall be filled with Anguish and perplexity of Spirit which they shall not know how to help in themselves Secondly Silence it is a note of Conviction They shall be silent that is they shall have nothing to say for themselves Wicked men as they shall be full of Grief so likewise of Confusion When God shall charge them with such and such Sins and Abominations whereof they are guilty they shall have nothing here to answer him Either by way of Apology for themselves or Censure of his proceedings against them That every mouth may be stopped and all the World become guilty before God as it is in Rom. 3.19 Thus it was with him in the Gospel Which came to the Marriage-Supper not having on him his Wedding-Garment when the King aâ—kt him how he came thither it is said he was speechless Matth. 22.12 That is he knew not what to say for himself God will one day non-plus and Convince and Confound all impenitent Sinners They shall be in Darkness that is in Extremity of Misery and silent in it that is Convinced and perswaded of Gods design in his proceedings Thirdly It is a note of Abode and of Continuance in this miserable Condition They shall be kept and bound up in it As the Egyptian Darkness it was such as wherewith they were fastened and contained in their places as not knowing how to stir out of them They saw not one another neither rose any from his place for three Days And Wisd 17. vers 17. There is an Expression sutable where t is said They were all bound with one Chain of Darkness Sutable whereunto is that of Jude 1.6
's his thoughts his Meditations his Expectations his Hopes and Desires He is nothing but Earth in the whole frame and temper of his Spirit Therefore are wicked men in Scripture Emphatically call'd the World and men of the World and Inhabitants of the World and dwellers upon the Earth as if there were nothing else which they cared for or had any mind or affection unto And then as it is their portion to we must take in that with it Terram dedit filicis hominum God has bestowed the Earth upon them as being all which he makes account to give them here they have their Portion and Reward and Inheritance and consolation as the Scripture does abundantly signify and demonstrate unto us more particularly and expresly in that place of the Prophet David Psal 17.14 Men of the world have their portion in this life as expressing the quality of the offender Thirdly The Wicked of the Earth it may be taken by way of Denomination that is such persons as are more notoriously wicked and are guilly in a more eminent degree The Spirit of God makes choyce of such words which might be most expressive and proper to the business in hand he does not say simply Sinners for then no man should be excluded forasmuch as the best that are they have the Defilement of Sin in them nor he does not say onely the Wicked that is meer natural and unregenerate persons for there is a difference also of these and all are not so deeply involved and ingaged in Sin one as another but he says the wicked of the Earth that is such as are more Scandalous and Presumptuous and Impenitent and farthest from Reformation such as these who for the nature of the Sin are more Abominable and for the continuance in it are more Incorrigible these are they which the Holy Ghost does here point at in a more principle manner And this for the persons here mentioned to wit the wicked or ungodly of the Earth The Second is the Evil which is denounced against them and that is That they shall wring out the Dregs and drink them Where again two things more First The Draught or Potion it self and that is the Dregs of the Cup. Secondly The manner of Participation of it and that is by wringing them out and drinking them .. For the First The Potion or draught it self it is the Dregs of the Cup. This is the Potion and Portion of wicked men while t is said they shall drink the Dregs there are three things implyed in this expression as belonging unto it First The Reservation of Judgment they shall drink the last Secondly The Aggravation of Judgment they shall drink the worst And Thirdly The Perfection and Confirmation of Judgment they shall drink up all They shall drink the last they shall drink the worst they shall drink all each of these are implyed in the Dregs First They shall drink the last here 's the Reservation of Judgment The Dregs they lie at the botom and are not come to till all the rest of the cup be drunk up before And this is the Stato and Condition of wicked men As to the Judgments of God they are such as are last in it When God has warmed Himself a little with his Children in the Chastening and Correcting of them then he pours forth the fierceness and fury of his Vengance and Indignation upon his Enemies in the Punishing and Destroying of them so that they have in a manner the weight and Impression of all that went before Look as in the shewing of Mercy in Dispensation of Himself to his People God reserves the best for the last to them as he did with the Wine at the Marriage in Canaan so likewise in the Exercise of Wrath and execution of Judgment upon his Enemies God reserves the worst for the last to them also He reserves wrath for his Enemies as it is in Nahum 1.2 Therefore let none flatter themselves from present forbearance and by thinking that they are not involved in the common Calamities for although they be not as yet they may be time enough hereafter and their condition so much the heavier It is is no sign or argument of innocecy alwayes to escape present Judgement The wicked they drink the dregs that is the last of the Cup. Secondly They drink the dregs and that 's the worst of the Cup If there be any thing worse then other at any time it still settles at bottom there 's the collection and congregation of all the venome and poyson together And so t is with ungodly persons in regard of Divine Judgements they partake of the very worst of all the rest .. That cup of mingled wrath which we spake of before it comes to them with the greatest disadvantage that possibly may be They have that which others have left and which there soul abhorred to partake off which they desired to be delivered from and were heard in that which they desired That wicked men do taste of and not onely taste but swallow down and as they are the vilest in sinning so they are the miserablest in suffering and that 's the aggravation Thirdly Here 's the Perfection or Confirmation of Judgement they shall drink up all there 's nothing comes after the dregs that 's the last of all in this cup and therefore they that take down them they take down all And this is the lot of ungodly men there 's not one judgement which belongs unto them which they shall not partake of As they fill'd up the measure of their sins so they shall likewise fill up the measure of the wrath of God which shall be poured upon them for their sins Yea and they shall All do it too we may not omit that neither All the wicked of the earth As there 's an universality of the Judgement so there 's an universality of the Patients They shall drink all of it and they shall all of them drink it that so no man may here favour or flatter himself They that are far from thee shall perish thou shalt destroy all them that go a whoring from thee as it is in Psal 73.27 And thus much for the first Particular to wit the draught or potion it self The dregs of the Cup. The second is the manner of Participation They shall wring them or suck them out and drink them whiles t is said they shall do it There are two things implyed in this expression First The Certainty of it it is unquestionable And Secondly The necessity of it it is unavoidable They shall do it that is they are sure to do it and no body shall contradict it and they shall do it that is they shall be forced to it and themselves shall not escape it or divert it or withdraw from it but do it thy shall First I say here 's the certainty of it it 's unquestionable there 's no doubt to be made of it God hath said it who is truth it self
in himself especially as revealed in his Son but we are then said to rejoyce in him when as by a Spirit of Faith we do improve him and make use of him for our Comfort and Consolation But Secondly By way of Reflexion we are then said to be glad in the Lord when we rejoyce in our Interest in Him and relation to Him when we resolve to make God our Happiness and greatest Contentment and to reckon of our selves accordingly as we have likely so to do This being glad in the Lord is opposed to being glad in the Creature as the Meditation of the Lord to a Meditation upon other things This is the Sum here of Davids Resolution and Expression of Himself in this particular that whereas Earthly and Worldly persons they had for the most part worldly Reflexions which were most pleasing and delightful to them his Meditation upon God should be the sweetest and whereas they also had many worldly Jollityes he would be glad and rejoyce in the Lord as most able to rejoyce in Him Which is that also which should be the studdy and indeavour of all other Christians and of our selves in particular amongst the rest So much for that to wit of Davids Exaltation joyned to his Contemplation and so of the whole Text before us My Meditation of him shall be sweet I will be glad in the Lord. SERMON XXIV Psal 77.10 And I said this is mine Infirmity but I will remember the years of the right hand of the most High The State and Condition of a Christian whilst he lives here below hath it's Vncertainties and Varieties with it not onely in reference to the world and the Concernments of this Natural Life but likewise in reference to Heaven and the hopes and Expectations of a better not onely as to his dealings with Men but to his Converse and Communion with God There are the Ebbings and Flowings of Grace and there are the Falling and Rising of Corruption which are by turns observable in Him as we may see here in this Instance and Example which we have here before us The Prophet David Himself who may serve as a Representation of all other Christians besides in this Particular how ever he was at other times a man fiull of Faith and Assurance yet he had now at this time a sit of Destrustfulness upon him and began to call in question the Love and Affection and Faithfulness of God Himself to him But yet through the Goodness of God he does at last work Himself out of it and he tells us here how he did it Then I said this is mine Infirmity but I will c. In the Text it self there are two General parts considerable First The Discovery of the Disease Secondly The Application of the Remedy The Discovery of the Disease that we have in these words Then I said this is mine Infirmity The Application or Resolution upon the Remedy that we have in these But I will remember the years c. We begin with the former viz. The Discovery of the Disease Then I said this is c. Wherein again we have two branches more First The simple Proposition This is mine Infirmity Secondly The Rersonal Keflexion I said this is c. It was in the thing it self and it was also in the Psalmist's own Observation First Take it simply in the Proposition and in the thing it self This is mine Infirmity wherein there are divers points included and Exhibited to us we will take them as they lie before us First We see here how the Saints and Servants of God themselves they have their Infirmities My Infirmity says David who was an Holy man a man after Gods own Heart as the Scripture sometimes describes him yet he had his weakness and Infirmities with him and so also have all others besides his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his often Infirmities as it is recorded of him 1 Tim. 5.23 But also Spiritual and Mental The weaknesses and Infirmities of the Soul and inward man they are those which are here mentioned in this place these are such as the Children of God have even in the Holiest and Exactest of them as it is here implyed The Ground of it is this First The reliques and remainders of the Old man still abiding in them where the Root is remaining there will be Fruit answerable to it according to the Propositions of it Now thus it is here in this particular the Children of God they are Flesh as well as Spirit and so farforth as they are Flesh there will be somewhat proceeding from them which shall savor of it The Flesh lusts against the Spirit as well as the Spirit against the Flesh as the Apostle tells us Gal. 5.17 Secondly Grace is wrought Imperfectly in them while they are here in this world so much there is of the Flesh so much the more there is to cause Infirmities and so much the less as there is of the Spirit so much the less on the otherside to prevent them I can do all things says the Apostle Paul through Christ that strengthens me A Christian is so far free from Infirmity as it pleases Christ to strengthen him but this is not absolutely and perfectly while he remains here in thi world Neither as to habitual Grace nor Auxiliary Neither as to the working of the Principles which is but in a weak measure and degree nor as to the Concurrance with the Opperations which are various and different in them also and at the best but very imperfect Therefore this teaches us to esteem of men as men not to think of them above that which is written as the Apostle advises nor to accept more from them then is indeed in them not to look for a Perfection in this Life from the best that are for it is not to be found As no man should think of himself more highly then he ought to think so neither should he think so of other men but so to Honour their Graces as withall to make account of their Infirmities The one to be pursued and imitated while the other is to be shunn'd and avoyded even David he had his Infirmities That is the First Secondly As good men have their Infirmities so commonly they have some one more especially which they are addicted and inclined unto As they have Corruption in them at large so this Corruption more particularly and especially which they are incumbred withall This is mine Infirmity says the Psalmist by way of Appropriation Original Corruption it does not run out alike in all but has it's varieties and diversities of Improvement in some after one manner and in others after another As we see it is in the Body though all men are in regard of their Nature subject to all kind of Diseases yet all do not alike partake of them some are more inclinable to one and some to another Even so is it also in the Soul and inward man every Christian has his Infirmities This should teach every
upon them Thirdly Here was the Ingenuity of his Spirit I said this is mine Infirmity namely in a way of humble Confession and Acknowledgment it was in the thing it self and I signified it and declared it to be so I said it not onely to my self and in mine own Heart but as there was occasion for it I said it to others also and acknowledged it likewise to them This is another Disposition in Gods Children in regard of that Corruption which is in them to be willing to take shame to themselves that so they may give Glory to God and to acknowledg their own Infirmities that so they may manifest and more advance his Power The same words may be spoken and utter'd with a different Affection if we listen abroad in the world we shall many times heare such words as these are This is mine Infirmity But how and with what Spirit are they spoken and uttered for the most part Surely very Carelesly and Customarily and Formally and Corruptly Tell some men of such and such Sins and Miscarriages which they are guilty off they think to put off all with this by saying it is their Infirmity though perhaps it be never so Gross and Hanious a Transgression yet all is one with them it goes under the name of an Infirmity and so they think thereby to salve and make up the matter but Gods Children they speak of their Miscarriages with another frame and temper of Heart not as to Justify them but as to bewayl them not as to Extenuate them and make them less but to fasten a due Impression upon them as David here does as Loathing and abhorring them in themselves This Expression here in the Text it is not a word of Apology but rather a word of Aggravation and it further shews the Ingenuity of Gods Children not onely as to Confession it self but also as to the Nature and Quality and Condition of the Sins themselves which are confessed by them A Good and a Gracious Heart it bewails not onely its Iniquities but also its Infirmites and not onely open and Scandalous Sins which every Body sees and takes notice of but even secret and hidden faylings and the more inward Deflexions of Spirit Deadness and Hardness and Unprofitableness and Impatience and Unbelief These are the things which go near to the Soul of a good Christian as well as publique and more Notorious Offences as well as Gross and more Grivious Miscarriages Thus we see it was with David in another place as in Psal 73.22 When he was Envious at the Foolish and was troubled at the Prosperity of the Wicked these thoughts they were afterwards upon Consideration troublesom to him and he was geived in himself for them So foolish was I says he and Ignorant I was as a Beast before thee He befooles himself for his sinister thought such a Sin as if he had kept his own Counsell we should never have known he had been guilty of it The Ground hereof in the Servants of God is First That Wonderful Exactness and Curiousness and Sincerity which is remarkable in them see how it is in the Body Curious and Exact persons which are trim and neat Indeed they are affected with the least Spot or Blemish which is in their Garments not onely with Greater and wider Rents but with smaller and lesser Slits which may happen unto them Even so is it also in the Soul and as to the Concernments of the Inward man there 's the like Trimness and Neatness here also in a Proportionableness thereunto and so as to the Covering of the Body so likewise as to the Healing of it there is some which make as much of a Scratch as another would do of a deep wound as being of a far more tender and delicate Temper even so it is also here Tender Consciences they lament even Infirmities whilst hardned Hearts go away with Greater Sins Secondly It proceeds from that Love and intireness of Affection which a good Christian bears to God Love it is shy of any thing which may be offensive to the party Beloved not onely of Greater Injuryes but of smaller Vnkindnesses It 's troubled when it 's any thing defective in the Expressions of Love where it is due and it concerns it to be so and so it is also here A Godly man he has his Heart and his Soul full of the love of Christ and therefore is troubled for any thing which is displeasing to Christ not onely for unsavory Speeches but for unruly Affections not onely for ungodly Deeds but for ungodly Thoughts which have a mark also of Sinfulness upon them The Affection of a Christian is answerable to the Jealousie which is in God Now the Lord being a jealous God he does take notice even of lighter miscarriages even so does a Christian heart accordly bewail them in himself and is humbled and troubled for them Thirdly It arises also from Christian Prudence as considering whither infirmities tend and what they will come to if they be not better prevented As we see it is again in the body smaller matters being neglected and let alone they come to greater a lighter scratch it may chance to prove a mortal wound if there be not some care taken of it whereas those that complain betimes they doe thereby prevent and keep off more dangerous and pernicious distempers Even so it is in the Soul weaknesse it turns to wickedness if there be not the more heed and regard had of it by us Therefore a Gracious heart thinks it wisdom to complain of this and is sensible and apprehensive of it Now therefore accordingly it teaches us to be so likewise and that betimes Principiis obsta stop these very first Beginnings and Eruptions of sins in us Stifle these sins in the Conception before they come so far as the Birth and break forth into the outward expression Remember this that the very thought of foolishness is sin as Solomon tells us As it is the Advantage of a man above a Beast that he can reflect upon his own Actions so it is the praise of a Christian above other men that he does censure his own evil thoughts and findes fault with himself for those matters which no body blames besides And further observe here how he does more especially charge himself in this particular This Trouble which he had now about Gods Providence it was in part a Temptation of Satan who had injected this into his mind and had suggested it to him but yet he does principally and especially take the blame of it in his own particular as being likewise guilty of it This is mine infirmity it Satans malice as to the suggestion but it is my infidelity and unbelief as to the closing and complying with it The Devil could have no advantage against us as to the fastening of Temptations upon us if it were not for the falseness naughtiness and corruption of our own sinfull hearts which do in some sort yield and
for Converse with God wherein we have least Distraction and Perplexities and trouble from the World now this of all other times is when we awake out of sleep which as the Heathen man called the Night is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A sweet Cessation of labour we then chuse to be with our Friends when we may best injoy them without disturbance and so we should chuse to be with God thus in Psal 42. vers 8. The Lord will Command his Loving-kindness in the day time and in the Night his Songs shall be with me and my prayer unto the God of my life Lastly Our wakeing-thoughts are our purest and free'st from Pollution these things are the fittest for God which are most like to himself the pure God should be presented with the purest thoughts Now these are most Commonly the first because they have not the disadvantage of Intervenient occasions to defile them Thus we see how there is great Ground and Equity for such a practise as this is The Consideration of this point may be thus far usefull to us as it may serve to call us to an Account in this particular and put us upon a self-inquiry and Examination about it To observe what thoughts take hold on us when Sleep hath left us there are many who complain of Watchfulness and that their rest is taken away from them but how are they then imployed when rest has forsaken them And I speak not so much of times of sickness and bodily Distemper wherein they are not so free to themselves but in the best and perfectest Health Whether can they say or no with this Holy man here before us That when they are awake they are still with God That they are still Yea that they are at all There are three sorts of Companions which men are sometimes withall in such cases and in the mean time none of them with God First With themselves Secondly With the World Thirdly With Satan First With themselves that is with their own Corrupt Fancies and Imaginations How long shall thy vain thoughts lodg within thee Jer. 4.14 Not onely pass through thee but lodg in thee There are many who are no sooner awake but they have some sinful project or other in their Heads which they give themselves to They sleep not except they do Mischeif and their sleep is taken away from them except they cause some to fall Prov. 4.16 In Psal 36.4 It is said of a wicked man That he deviseth misoheif upon his Bed he setteth himself in a way that is not good he abhorreth not Evil. And in Mic. 2.1 There is a woe denounced against such persons as these are Woe unto them that devise Iniquity and work Evil upon their Beds when the Morning is light they practise it because it is in the power of their hands Thus they entertain themselves with their own sinful Contrivances And God is not in all their thoughts Psal 10.4 There 's a great deal of speculative Wickedness which the world is sometimes guilty and that in all sorts and kinds of Praevarication speculative Revenge and speculative Vncleanness and speculative Ambition and the like There is no Sin which is committed in Act but it is first of all committed in thought which is a 〈◊〉 and preparatory to it and thus do men Converse with themselves and their own Lusts Secondly With the World there are others who do Converse with this and wake with it their first and their cheifest thoughts are still in order hereunto and they take Counsell of themselves to this purpose we have a famous instance hereof in the Gospel in in Luke 12.16 Of that rich man there whose Ground brought forth plentifully and what use did he make of it It is said he thought within himself saying what shall I do because I have no Room where to bestow my Fruits And he said this will I do I will pul down my Barns and build greater and there will I bestow my Fruits and my Goods And I will say to my Soul Soul thou hast much goods laid up for many years take thy ease Eat Drink and be Merry Here 's an Emblem of a worldly person and a discovery of the practise of many others besides in the World who are no sooner commonly awake but they have such thoughts and diseases as these rising up in them Thirdly With Satan that 's another Companion which many are still withall when they are awake they are in Converse and Communion with that impure and unclean Spirit which is the worst Company and Society that can be It is a common saying and a true one Aut Dens aut Daemon That every man when he is alone is either a God to himself or a Devil that is either hearkning to the Motions of that Spirit or likewise listening to the suggestions of Satan and there are too many who do prefer the latter The Devil is very busie to apply himself for the most part to mens mindes when they first awake and they are commonly also at such times too ready to close with his Temptations and thus they pass from Bodily sleep oftentimes into Spiritual slumber And so now I have done with the first Notion of this passage here before us When I awake I am still with thee As it is an expression of Davids Disposition and Consequently of our Duty which is to be careful to set in with God in the first dawnings and beginnings of the Day when we awake first out of sleep The Second is as it is an expression of his Priviledge and Happiness of his Condition which he rejoyced in and Gloried in above all things And thus will we now look upon it for a Christian to be still with God when he awakes It is matter of very great Benefit and advantage to him in sundry Particulars First It secures from Dangers we read sometimes in Scripture of the Terrors of the Night The Night is a time of Terror partly in regard of its Darkness which has naturally some horror in it and partly in regard of it's Solitariness which has also some Discouragement with it to which we may likewise add the various Accidents which are incident unto it Oh but this wakeing with God it scatters and disperses them all it drives away these natural Fears these Terrors by Night what need that man to be affraid off who has God himself present with him and who is himself still with God This is that which incouraged David both here and in some other places As Psal 27.1 c. The Lord is my Light and my Salvation of whom shall I fear The Lord is the strength of my Life of whom shall I be afraid So Psal 3.5 I laid me down and slept I awaked for the Lord sustained me And again Psal 4.8 I will both lay me down in Peace and sleep for thou Lord onely makest me to dwell in Safety What a Comfortable Consideration is this in the times of Night Distraction In Tumults
of Good men and keep the paths of the Righteous Indeed I must further add thus much as concerning the further opening of this point that when we teach that the wayes of Plety are pleasant wayes First We do not deny but that Religion causes some kind of Greif and Sorrow which goes along with it It discovers sad things to the Soul concerning Sin and Hell and Damnation and wrath to come but then it discovers them so as to free those persons from them to whom it does discover them The Sun raises Vapors in the Morning but then it scatters them and dispels them by Noon and so does the Spirit of God with the Soul in this Business as our Saviour told his Disciples Ye shall indeed mourn but your sorrow shall be turned into joy Blessed are you that weep for ye shall be Comforted Godly sorrow it always ends in Heavenly Comfort and God never sadden any of his Children but he does it to this end and purpose that so occasionally from hence he may cause them the more to rejoyce and that their joy may be so much the more firm and fixt and lasting to them so that still 't is a way of pleasantness in regard of the end The more we sow in Tears the more we shall reap in joy That 's one Qualification of this point Again Secondly When we say that the wayes of Spiritual Wisdom and Grace are wayes of pleasantness we do not mean it of the mad mirth of the world which consists in nothing but Vanity and Folly and Luxuriancy of Spirit No it is not such a kind of pleasantness which is here intended but a Sanctified and Spiritual kind of pleasure A delight in Heavenly and a delight in Earthly things in an Holy and Heavenly manner For this we must know likewise that Godliness does not deny us a free and liberal use of the Creatures in the due time and measure which does therefore further take off the scandall which from hence is cast upon Religion as if it did utterly exclude all outward and worldly Joy In Friends and in Estates and in Recreations and such as these No It does not so indeed it moderats and qualifies it that it exceeds not and passes not it's Bounds A man that professes Religion though he may lawfully use the Creatures yet he may not be vain in the use of them and give himself that scope and liberty which others take to themselves in the injoyment of them Here there is a restraint upon him but for the thing it self there 's none Non Isaoc moroeter sed aries sayes Bernard sweetly It is not Isaac must Die but the Ram. Isaac in the proper notion of the word it signifies Laughter God will have us to offer it he will not have us to kill it Non peribet tibi laetitia sed Contumacia It is not thy joy it self which God will have slain but the ramishness and rankness of it the excrescency and perversness of it Take away this and Religion has as much rejoycing as any other Condition allowed unto it Again Thirdly We must take in this likewise that it pleases God to exercise his Children with Affections here in this world above many others besides Not onely with trouble for Sin but likewise with trouble from outward Crosses but still he is doing them good by them in their inward man and he follows their outward Crosses with the inward Comforts of his Spirit which does abundantly make it up Yea this is one benefit of Godliness which I named as an instance to prove the point in shewing wherein it is pleasant in that it does make even Afflictions themselves to be comfortable in the bearing of them so that take it which way we will the wayes of Wisdom will be wayes of Pleasure from whence we justly see the madness of those which think otherwise of it But against this it may be happily objected If Religion be thus pleasant as we speak off what may be the reason then that no more look after it then they do and take no more pleasure in it To this I answer First of all The reason why no more look after these pleasant wayes is indeed because they are ignorant and unacquainted with the Pleasantness of them we use to say Ignoti nulla cupido where there is no knowledg or apprehension of any good in any thing there is no desire of it and so t is for the most part here men are to seek in the Excellency of these things and therefore neglect them If thou knewest the gift of God and who it is that saith unto thee give me to drink thou wouldst have askt of him and he would have given thee living water sayes our Saviour to the woman of Samaria John 4.10 Even so may we say in this case to Worldly men if they knew the sweetness which were in Religion they would not be void of Relgion but would by all means apply themselves to it They do not know or believe the Scriptures and the Spirit of God in the Ministry of the word which gives knowledg and intimation of these things Secondly As this proceeds from Ignorance so it likewise proceeds from un-activity and want of tryal of the sweetness of these wayes Though a man should know or at least believe that such and such a meat were sweet and pleasant yet if he did not eat it and take it into his mouth he would have no actual delight in it Delight it proceeds from operation and so here Those that are not Conversant in Religion they have no pleasure in Religion Those that doe not walk in these wayes they cannot discern how pleasant they are And thus 't is in this present business Men do not therefore take contentment in Godliness and the pathes of Spiritual Wisdom because indeed they are unacquainted and un-accustomed for the most part to them Thirdly it does likewise proceed from the want of a right principle What 's Delight but a Suteableness and Agreement of the Faculty with the Object Let the Object be never so pleasant yet if â—â—ere be not an Eye to see it or a taste to rellish it and the like there can no delight or comfort arise from it All the sweet-meats in the world are nothing to a Distemper'd Palate All the pleasant Meadows that are they are nothing to a blind eye and so again 't is here Men are therefore not perswaded of the Sweetness and Pleasantness which is in Godliness because indeed they want such gracious Principles as should make them sensible and apprehensive of it This is the work of the Spirit of God and of him alone who therefore must be sought unto for it And this is the true account of mens carriage in this particular which yet is no disparagement to the thing it self nor any sufficient warrant for men therefore to think the worse of Religion And therefore this may be the first Use Namely as a word of Conviction and
have but low and mean thoughts in themselves of Religion and the wayes of Piety which look upon Godliness at least in the power of it but as a needless and superfluous business which doe in their secret minds contemn all such as are any thing eager or zealous for it such as these there are in the world who if they see any more forward then other in doing good despise them and think slightly of them such an one as this was Michol in her carriage to King David when she saw him in the zeal of his spirit to dance before the Lord with all his might it is said she despised him in her heart that is she had undervaluing conceits of him occasionally from from that his carriage Secondly Scorners are such as do not onely slight Religion in others but also decline it in themselves and oppose themselves to those wayes which might tend to the Reformation of them Those that refuse and reject instruction and will not be advised to any thing which might promote them in a way of Salvation and this when it is come to the height of it is joyned to with Derision it self A Scorner ends in a Scoffer if he be not the more carefully prevented which is the worst and highest of all and the very next door to that sin which shall never be pardoned Now Thirdly There is a middle sort as I may betwixt either of these such as have not explicit thoughts in them of the meanness and lowness of Religion nor doe not it may be contemn it with any slight reflections upon it much less which is worse they do deride it or scoff at it but yet as to their practise do carry themselves very carelesly and indifferently to it which do not mind nor heed nor regard their own welfare and happiness nor the Admonitions which are Administred unto them as putting them thereupon These are the Scorners in a degree likewise and such are included also here in the Text not onely which do refuse wisdom in her Invitation but also which neglect her such as these they are said to scorn as well as the other Whosoever he be that is not reform'd by admonition that man scorns Admonition in the Practical Notion of it and as the Holy Ghost himself interprets whatsoever his particular thoughts and habitual apprehensions may be about it Thus we see who they are that scorn Now answerable to these three sorts and kinds of them there are three grounds for them also Scorning it hath a threefold root from from whence it does arise The first is Vnbelief and Infidelity therefore men Scorn Instruction because they do not believe Judgement and Punishment which is threatned against them They think there 's no such great evil in sin as some make of it they are secure and self-presumptuous As that Person there in the Law Deut. 22.18 19. That root that bare gall and wormwood who blesses himself in his heart saying I shall have peace though I walk in the imagination of mine heart to add drunkenness to thirst The Lord will not spare him but then the anger of the Lord and his jealousie shall smoke again that man and all the curses that are written in this book shall lye upon him and the Lord shall blot out his name from under heaven And the Lord shall sepâ—rate him unto evil out of all the Tribes of Israel according to all the curses of the Covenant that are written in the Book of the law Such an one as this is will Scorn any thing that is sayd unto him for the reclaiming and amending of him and reducing him to that which is good because he does not believe that there is any such danger indeed in sin as is pretended to be in it Secondly Pride and Self-conceitedness that 's another thing breeds scorning The wicked through the pride of his Countenance will not seek after God and as he will not seek after him so neither will he hearken to any that would draw him to him Pride and Scorn they are such as grow up together and the one is the Foundation of the other Those which are swollen and puff't and lifted up in their own thoughts they disdain all seasonable Admonitions which are cast upon them They think themselves too good for the word and the remembrances of it And they usually despise those persons which do tender it unto them let it be in any thing whatsoever which men use to be puff't up withal whether Birth or Wit or Wealth or what ever it be Those that pride themselves in any of these things they doe accordingly Scorn all such means as should make them better and the Dispensers of them A Scorner heareth not Rebuke Prov. 13.1 Heareth it not that is beareth not patiently and meekly Is not willing and content to hear it Nor heareth it not effectually so as to be amended and better'd by hearing it Thus he does not hear it and all because he is a Scorner one that 's high-minded and conceited in Himself Thirdly Thraldom and Addictedness to any particular lust which men are compast withal this makes them to scorn advise He that 's in love with sin will not love him that rebukes him and reproves him for his sin and that because he hinders him and interrupts him in his delightful pursuits Those which are in league with any lust they do not love to be taken off from it which Admonition it does for them it will not suffer them to fin so freely and so heartily as otherwise they would doe Every check is a restraint because it meets with the Conscience of the person upon whom it is fastened who has somewhat within himself joyning with anothers Reproof and taking part with it against himself This makes men in stead of rising up against their own corruptions to rise up against those which warn them and tell them of them Rebuke a Scorner and he will hate thee as it is in the verse before in this Chapter Again He that Reproves a Scorner gets to himself shame And he that Rebukes a wicked man getteth to himself a blot Namely which is fastned upon him by him who is reproved And this now for the opening unto you what is meant here by Scorning with the grounds and occasions of it Now further for the Punishment which is here annext unto it I say it is first of all considerable in its simple evil and inconvenience If thou Scornest thou shalt bear it Scorning is followed with Punishing as belonging unto it And there are three things in this passage which do amplifie and illustrate it unto us First The Indesiteness of it Secondly Vniversality Thirdly The Vnavoidableness The Indefiniteness of it that he shall not know what that punishment is The Vniversality in the Expectation of all punishment The Vnavoidableness in that there is no dispensation but suffer he must First I say there 's the Indefiniteness Thou shalt bear it what shall he bear It is not
which is here used in the Future Tense Va-Jakreth He will cut off Where whilst it is said here that He will there are three things at once which are included in this Expression First As a Word of Premonition Secondly As a Word of Procrastination Thirdly As a Word of Resolution First As a Word of Premonition Take notice of that We see here how God does not usually surprize men or come upon them before they are aware if the fault be not their own but he gives them warning before he destroys them and proceeds to a final and utter desolation of them He tells them He will do it before he does it indeed He does so in the way of his Providence by many turns and passages thereof which do bespeak such things unto them if they would but observe them Their Destruction in the Previous Causes and Simptoms and Tendances to it before there is Destruction in the Event it self and Absolute Accomplishment of it And so he does it also as I hinted before in the mouths of his Prophets and Ministers who threaten it and give warning of it And also in the hearts and spirits of men themselves Which should therefore teach us to hasten it and to give heed unto it Despise not God's Gracious Hints and Admonitions of Judgment before hand for fear lest we be overtaken with them before we are as it was with those in the days of Noah in the Deluge of Waters And as it were with those in Sodom and Gomorrah in the Destruction of Fire and Brimstone The word Will is a word of Premonition that is the first Secondly He will It is a Word of Procrastination It is a Speech of Delay and present Forbearance God cuts off impenitent Sinners but he does not do it presently but after some temperate Indulgence towards them As he gives them warning so consequently he gives them time if they will make a right Use and Improvement of it Thus we know he did with the old World Gen. 6.3 The Lord said my Spirit shall not always strive with man for that he also is flesh yet his days shall be one hundred and twenty years God is slow to Anger and consequently slow to Judgment Which his Work but his strange Work his Act but his strange Act. This is a Ground likewise for our slowness to the provoking of him If God be so slow to punish we should be as slow to sin and not abuse his Long-suffering and Patience in this particular but rather hereby be lead to Repentance which is the proper use and improvement of it as it is in Rom. 2.4 Despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and long-suffering not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance But yet Thirdly It is a Word of Resolution It is that which he hath fully purposed and determined to do in Conclusion God will not be always Willing he will be at last Doing and reducing his Will into Act and absolute Execution Which is that which is here further intimated in this Expression He will do it and none shall hinder him and keep him from it Thus Job 9.12 Behold he taketh away who can hinder him and who will say unto him what doest thou And so in Job 23.13 He is in one mind who can turn him and what his soul designeth that he doth He will in regard of his Vnchangeableness None can alter him from his Purpose And He will in regard of his Powerfulness None can restrain him of his Purpose For who hath resisted his Will This is here especially to be understood after all means which he hath used for reclaiming them and all to no purpose As long as there is any hope of Repentance and Amendment and Resignation of People's Lives so long God seems to be in some doubting and disputing with himself whether he had best to destroy them or no How shall I give thee up Ephraim how shall I deliver thee Israel how shall I make thee as Admah how shall I set thee as Zeboim my heart is turned within me my repentings are kindled together Hos 11.8 But when they once prove to be incorrigible and past hope of being any thing better then he comes to I will and that as a word of Peremptoriness and full Resolution And this for the Nature of the Judgment The Lord will cut off The Third is The Subject of it or the People involved in it and that is Israel If it had been from Egypt or Assyria or Edom such Nations as were not only Strangers but Enemies to God the matter had not been so great For the Lord to cut off such as those it might have appeared to be no great wonder For If a man find his Enemy will he let him go well away says Saul himself to David 2 Sam. 24.19 But for Israel which was God's own special and peculiar People and whom himself had made choice of above all other Nations of the World For the Lord to cut off such as those this was strange and remarkable Yet this is that which we may here observe and take notice of in this present Scripture The Lord will out off from Israel his vineyard his inheritance his pleasant plant his peouliar treasure He will not spare or indulge these but in these Circumstances will cut them off This is the sad Nature and Condition of Sin that it does frustrate all kinds of Privileges which any People are capable of as to the exempting them from God's Afflicting Hand If Israel shall provoke God by their Impenitency and Obstinacy against him even Israel shall be punished and cut off by him He will not forbear even such as those in such conditions Nay sometimes he will proceed so much the rather and the sooner against them Judgment shall begin at the house of God as it is in 1 Pet. 4.17 And you only have I known says God of all the families of the earth therefore I will be sure to punish you for your iniquities in Amos 3.2 Therefore let none bear themselves up by such things as these as to hearten them and encourage them in sinning as to cry with them in Jeremy Templum Domini The Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord are those Jer. 7 4. that is to trust to their mere relation which they stand in to God as Members of the Visible Church and Partakers of the Outward Means and Ordinances and such like things as these for these will not defend them in their sinning against Gods Visitations nor Destructions of them The Lord will cut off from Israel c. That is the first Particular in this second General viz. The Denunciation of the Judgment The Second is the Extent of it and that we have expressed to us in a double Metaphor the one from the nature of the Head and Tail and the other from the nature of a Tree in the Branches and Roots Both of them coming to
of Christ and of God But that because of these things the wrath of God cometh upon the children of disobedience In Rev. 22.8 that They have their part in that lake which burneth with fire and brimstone That is no other than that as it is here expressed in the Text they are turned into Hell There are none that live and continue in such Sins as these are whose end is destruction Phil. 3.10 howsoever they may flatter themselves with hopes of the contrary that can expect any other lot to befall them than such as this How much she hath glorified her self and lived deliciously so much torment and sorrow give her It was said of the Whore of Babylon Rev. 18.7 And holds true of all other Whores and sinful Persons in any kind or condition whatsoever By how much the more that the heart of any People is drowned and swallowed up in Lust and Carnal Pleasure by so much the more are they from thence exposed to Hellish Torments and Tortures which shall accordingly light upon them This is a thing which is no way to be doubted or called in question as having the Word of God it self clear for it And there are few but are ready in mind to acknowledge it and seem at least to be perswaded of it But Secondly That is not all Not only Open and Scandalous Sinners but also close and secret Hypocrites and Formalists who have a Form of Godliness but deny the Power thereof These come into this number also of those that are wicked and so consequently that are turned into Hell The Scripture takes a special notice and observation of those and fastens a special Character upon them to this purpose as we have divers Instances of it thus Psal 125.4 The Lord will do good to those that are good and to them that are upright in their hearts But as for them that turn aside to their wicked ways that is to say Hypocrites and Double Dealers the Lord will lead them forth with the workers of iniquity that is reckon them in the number of Wicked Persons and accordingly deal with them In Matth. 23.15 The Hypocrites they are made to be Children of Hell as all one with them And Matth. 24.52 it is said of the Unfaithful Steward that His Lord shall come in a day when he looks not for him and in an hour that he is not aware of and shall cut him asunder and appoint him his portion with hypocrites there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth Where the Portion of Hypocrites is made to be The Description of Hell as that which is in a special manner appointed unto them Thirdly Which carries yet a little farther and enlarges this Name a little wider All Carnal and Unregenerate Persons whosoever are yet remaining and abiding in the State of Nature and not converted and brought home to Christ These are moreover the Wicked in the sense of the Text and have answerably the Doom of the Text falling upon them as being liable to be turned into Hell The Scripture is clear for this also as we have it in Joh. 3.3 from the mouth even of Christ himself in his discoursing with Nicodemus Verily Verily I say unto thee except a man be born again he cannot see the Kingdom of God What is it to be born again That is to have a new Nature and Principles put into him over what he hath brought into the World This is here to be supposed and taken for granted that as the Apostle Paul expresly tells us We are all by nature the children of wrath Ephes 2.3 I was born in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me saith the Prophet David of himself Psal 51.5 And it is applicable to all other Persons whosoever they are The whole frame of the thoughts of every man's heart by nature is evil and only evil continually Gen. 6.5 From whence so considered there is no Agreement betwixt God and him or Communion betwixt them For what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness or what communion hath light with darkness 2 Cor. 6.14 this is that which makes God and Man Enemies and exposes Man for his particular to the Judgment of God and draws down all his Wrath and Vengeance upon him in the Demerit of it for there is no unclean thing or that defileth which can enter into that holy place Rev. 21.27 Therefore there must be a Change and Alteration wrought before any one come thither And they must be made meet to be partakers of the inheritance of Saints in light and begotten again to a lively hope 1 Pet. 1.3 Now there is nothing less than this which will serve the turn to bring men to Heaven and so consequently to keep them from Hell That which we call Good Nature if it be not moreover sanctified and renewed by Grace it is but Bad Nature still and Nature Corrupt and sodenounces such Persons as are the Subjects of it to be Wicked Persons notwithstanding all that seeming Comliness and Amiableness which may be in them Take Civility and Morallity and Ingenuity and such Principles and Dispositions as those of Temperance and Sobriety and Justice and Liberality and the like Although in themselves simply considered they are very noble and honourable Quallifications and such as had never more need to be extolled than in such times as these are wherein there is so much failing and decaying of them yet for all that they are not enough of themselves alone to bring men to Salvation If Men have no more but these they may go to Hell for all these And this is clear from the Passage of our blessed Saviour himself in Matth. 5.20 Except your righteousness exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees ye shall in no case enter into the Kingdom of Heaven The Righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees it was as to outward appearance very perfect and exact Righteousness especially some amongst them above the rest As we may see in the Apostle Paul himself when he was of that Profession He was touching the Righteousness which was in the Law blameless as he says of himself Philip. 3.6 But yet when he came to be converted and to become a Christain he durst not stand to it as he again delcares of himself in the eighth and ninth Verses of that Chapter No more have any others besides cause to trust or to rely hereupon as which will 〈◊〉 serve them Men may have fair and civil outward Carriages and Deportments in regard of the World and yet have naughty and desperate hearts full of Pride and Envy and Malice and Rebellion of Spirit Now such as these they are wicked Persons also in the Language of the Text and Children of Hell it self These are such as the World does sometimes very much abound with who under the Visage of common Civility and External smoothness of Conversation are Great Haters and Opposers and Despisers of the Power of Godliness and of those who are the true
of the Admonition it self saying This is the way walk ye in it Now this in a Suitableness and Correspondency to what went before may be taken three manner of ways and may seem to carry a threefold Impression upon it First As a word of Correction and Reformation in case of Miscarriage This is the way walk ye in it It is very fitly said to those which wander and are out of the way to reduce them and to bring them again into it Secondly As a word of Direction and Instruction in case of Ignorance This is the way walk ye in it It is very properly said to those which are to seek and know not what to betake themselves to nor which way to turn them to shew it and to chalk it out to them Thirdly It is a word of Strengthening and Confirmation in case of Unsettledness This is the way walk ye in it It is very suitably said to those who are doubtful and wavering and uncertain in themselves whether they be right in the way or no to encourage them to persevere and go on in those good Ways which they have made entrance upon All these Emphasis are in this Expression First I say It is a word of Correction and Reformation in case of Miscarriage This is the way walk ye in it It is very fitly said to those which wander and are out of the way to reduce them and to bring them into the way again And to them it is said God doth not only by his Word but by his Spirit admonish them of the evil Courses which they are in and turn them from them That Way which you are in is not that wherein you should walk No it is this and therefore walk ye in it Thus we have it in Ezek. 33.11 Turn ye turn ye from your evil ways for why will ye die O house of Israel The Lord calls upon men dayly to Repentance and Amendment and Reformation of their Lives Not only in the way of his Providence and the things which he does in the World as Grounds and Motives to them for it but likewise in the Work of the Ministry and the stirrings of his Spirit in the heart as enforcing those Occasions upon them This he does as we may conceive especially upon a twofold Consideration First Out of Mercy to them that so by this means he might at last recover them God delight not in the death of a sinner as he hath said and sworn about it It is no pleasure to him that men should sin and live wickedly and damn their Souls He desires rather their Amendment and Salvation And because indeed he does so therefore as a means tending hereunto does he admonish them and check them upon their Miscarriages and Goings astray Secondly In Judgment and Aggravation against them that so hereby he may leave them inexcusable and that they may have nothing to say for themselves that they may not plead they wanted memory that they had no body to rectifie them and set them right He himself does therefore undertake to do it for them They shall hear a word behind them saying this is the way walk ye in it It is a word of Correction and Reformation to them in case of Miscarriage And that is the first Emphasis or Impressions which is upon it wherein we may consider it Secondly It is a word of Direction and Instruction in case of Ignorance This is the way walk ye in it It is very properly said to those which are to seek and know not which way to turn themselves And to them also is it said especially so far forth as they do any thing seek unto him and depend upon him for it Those which desire Direction from God in those Ways which are to be taken by them they shall receive Direction from him The meek will he guide in judgment and the meek will he teach his way Psal 25.9 This is true and may be made good unto us according to a double Explication whether we take it in reference to Civil things and the Affairs of this present Life Or whether we take it in reference to Spirituals and things of a better First Take it in reference to Civil things and the Affairs of this present Life So there are very Gracious Hints which are sometimes given to the Servants of God for their direction in this particular In Businesses of any great Concernment and Moment and Importance to them where they are ignorant and know not what to do it pleases him to advise them This is the way walk ye in it And they may very well satisfie themselves in this respect when it is so with them Though it be that which is not chiefly intended here in the Text yet it is not excluded and therefore we may very seasonably observe it and take notice of it Secondly In reference to Spirituals and the Affairs of a better life Here those that wait upon him shall not want Direction from him but he will advise them and by counselling to them For which purpose they do with a great deal of confidence betake themselves to him as the Prophet David says in sundry places Thus in Psal 25.4 5. Shew me thy ways O Lord and teach me thy paths Lead me in thy truth and teach me for thou art the God of my salvation on thee do I wait all the day So again Psal 86.11 Teach me thy way O Lord I will walk in thy truth make my heart to fear thy name So again Psal 143.8 Cause me to hear thy loving-kindness in the morning for in thee do I put my trust cause me to know the way wherein I should walk for I lift up my soul unto thee Now in answer to such Prayers and Requests as these are does the Lord accordingly very graciously instruct them and give direction to them And they shall hear a word behind them saying this is the way walk ye in it That is Secondly A word of Direction and Instruction in case of Ignorance Thirdly It is a word of Confirmation in case of Unsettledness This is the way walk ye in it It is spoken very suitable to those which are somewhat doubtful whether they be in the way or no by way of Encouragement God will Graciously provide for the Settlement and Constancy and Perseverance of his People that they may not depart of start aside from him And this is another kind of Word which is as useful and necessary as the other We have not more need to be diverted from those ways which are evil and to be directed to those which are good then when we are in good wayes already to be settled and confirm'd in them that we do not forsake and leave them This is that which is in this Supplication Least that which is lame be not turned out of the way but that it rather be healed as it is in Heb. 12.13 There 's hardly any can be in a good way but as soon as ever they
behind us saying This is the way walk ye in it when we turn either to the right hand or to the left But now farther if we please we may take these words a little more at large as I in part hinted before When ye turn to the right hand or to the left not as touching it of two extreams but in reference to all the passages of our lives whatsoever they be When ye turn to the right hand or to the left that is whatsoever place ye are in whatever business ye are about whatever condition befalls you ye shall have the hints of the Word and Spirit of God assistant to you This is the promise which is made to the Saints and Servants of God And it is made not only here in this Text but also in divers other places besides as Psal 37.5 Commit thy way unto the Lord trust also in him and he shall bring it to pass So Prov. 3.6 In all thy ways acknowledge him and he shall direct thy pathes So again in Prov. 16.3 Commit thy Works unto the Lord and thy Thoughts shall be Established This Disposition in God towards his People is founded on his Affection to them He loves them and therefore he Counsels them and cannot abide to see them miscarry Love it is full of direction of the party which it is placed upon and will not suffer him to go out of his way And so it is with God to us This is a great Comfort and Incouragement to us and should quicken us especially in his service wherein especially we are sure to have him to guide us and go before us and be assistant unto us And that in the darkness of this World wherein we walk If a man have a bad way yet if he have a good guide it is some Comfort to him This is the Lord to his Servants He teaches them to go taking them by the hand as it in Hos 11.3 Oh how much should we be affected herewith Especially in this Age and Time wherin we live In which we have so many Labarynths and uncertainties that a great many do not know what to do nor what way to betake themselves to We have so many humours and conceits amongst us that we know not almost what to believe nor what to practise It is the case and condition of many people that they are at a nonplus and almost at their wits ends in this particular Well in all these uncertainties and distractions Here 's the Comfort and Incouragement of Gods servants which do not provoke him to do otherwise with them from some default or miscarriage in them in which case it may be suspended to them That they shall hear a word behind them saying this is the way walk in it when they turn c. But here it may partinently be demanded How this word shall be discerned and known because there 's a great deal of deceit and mistake in the particulars many taking that to be the word and spirit of God which is no more but their own foolish fancy and the suggestions and intimation of the Devil joyning with their own corrupt hearts It is the condition of many people now in these present days and never more than now it is For this There are divers Touchstones and discoveries of it which we will briefly instance in First Let this within thee be regulated by the word without thee And the motions and suggestions of the Spirit examined by the Rule of the Scripture and the written word of God to the Law and the Testimony If they speak not according to this word it is because there is no light in them Isa 8.20 God never speaks in the Conscience contrary to what he speaks in the Scripture for he is unchangeable and cannot deny himself If therefore we have any motions in us which are cross and opposite hereunto we have very greet cause to suspect them as coming to us from another hand yea to abandon them and to bid defiance to them For which as the Wind does not sit at the same time in two contrary corners North and South so neither does the Spirit breath in two contrary motions Good and Evil. The motions of the spirit are always suitable and agreeable to it self Secondly They are also orderly and regular They keep men within the compass of their Callings and the spheres and the place which God has set them in Motions either from mens own Spirits or the spirit of Satan acting in them they are many times out of course they carry them above their line and make them to stretch themselves beyond their measure as the Apostle speaks But those which come from God and the suggestions and inclinations of his spirit they confine them and keep them within bounds They order them and frame them and keep them within bounds suitable to their several stations and Relations and Conditions and Circumstances in the world which they have regard and heed unto So likewise which we may refer hereunto they are agreeable also to the law of Nature and Civility and ingenuity in us Therefore such motions as cross these they are not such as come from Gods spirit but from the spirit of the Devil when any are carried to such acts as are against Civility and common modesty it self Thirdly They are also mild and gentle and seasonable They are not ordinarily violent raptures but such as leave a man in a right apprehension of what he does and reflexion upon it A man knows where he is and what he does while he is followed with them which in the motions of Satan is otherwise Fourthly They are discernable also from their Effects and the ends which they tend unto all the hints and motions of Gods spirit they still tend to make us better and to carry us nearer to himself one way or other they serve to promote Piety and Holiness in us and to better us especially and above all in our Inward man whereas those which are contrary and do serve to weaken Grace in us they have another spring for them Lastly In all these Cases the Spirit commonly brings his own Conviction and Evidence with him And as he says This is the way walk ye in it so he does likewise manifest that it is he that says it from whence the Soul of a Christian may be assured that he is not mistaken or deluded in it Look as those which had the Spirit of Prophesy they did by the same light know both the truth of the things themselves which they prophesied about as also that it was from God that message which they delivered even so is it with those also still which have any motions of the Spirit of God in them they do at one and the same time know both the things themselves which they are moved unto as also the Authour and Original of them But so much for that In these hints and suggestions of the Spirit this voice behinde us may be discovered by
nore unto thee judge ye also of the equity of that And now this to bring all to some use is very applyable to our own condition of this Land and Nation To whom these words of the Text may be very well sitted and suited in all particulars And therefore O Generation see ye the word of the Lord. Let us think and consider with our selves how God has been pleased to carry himself to us from one Generation to another Has he been indeed a wilderness to us or a land of darkness Let us but a little look back and reflect upon the mercies of this very day as I mentioned it to you in the forenoon and had occasion as I then told you I had to do from a Sermon given to that purpose The seventeenth day of November which laid the ground work and foundation of so many mercies unto us which followed upon it In the breaking forth of the Gospel amongst us and many other blessings besides which we have enjoyed with it Peace and Plenty and Prosperity and Honour and Renown We have been a wonder to all Nations round about us for the great and remarkable favours which God hath been pleased from time to time to heap upon us Then they said amongst the Heathen the Lord hath done great things for them The Lord hath done great things for us whereof we rejoyce Psal 126.2 But have we made answerable returns to God's goodness and loving-kindness towards us Let us but see and consider that a little and seriously think of it What improvement have we made of the Gospel which we have so long time enjoyed to faithfulness and fruitfulness and heavenliness and holiness of conversation God has not been a wilderness to us have not we been so to him He has not been a land of darkness to us neither as opposite to the light of knowledg and information the darkness of error and ignorance nor as opposite to the light of comfort and consolation the darkness of misery and affliction God has been light unto us and in him is no darkness at all But whether have we walked in the light and not in darkness in reference to him This were worth the due scrutiny and enquiry by us Have we not wax'd proud and wanton and secure and presumptuous under all his dispensations towards us And so trusted to our own present welfare as that we have in a manner despised him and said with these people in the Text here before us We are Lords we will come no more unto thee Certainly the great abominations which do now in these days abound and increase still amongst us they do speak no less of us Well if it be thus with us we have great cause to be affected with it and to lay it to heart as that which is most absurd and unreasonable as it is here presented to us And to close at last with God's excitements and invitations of us to repentance and amendment of life This is that which we have an example of given us in this very people here before us the people as we may see in the following Chapter Jer. 3.22 Who when God had first himself said thus unto them Return ye backsliding children and I will heal your backsliding they presently make this answer and return unto him again Behold we come unto thee for thou art the Lord our God And so much may serve for this time SERMON XLIII JER 4.19 My bowels my bowels I am pained at my very heart my heart maketh a noise in me I cannot hold my peace because thou hast heard O my Soul the sound of the Trumpet the alarm of War This Text in the first reading or hearing of it one would be ready almost to think to be the speech of some travelling woman which were now in pain to be delivered and bringing forth a child into the world or which had miscarried through some fright or evil accident which had hapned unto her for it carries with it such expressions as are suitable to such conditions of bowels working and heart panting and spirit fainting and tongue crying aloud But yet if we look into the Context the Connexion and Coherence of it we shall find no such matter which makes it to be a business of so much the more wonderment and admiration so that we may justly upon occasion of it take up that inquiry of this very Prophet Jeremy himself in another place of his Prophecy and use the same words with him there in chap 30.6 Ask now and see whether a man doth travel with child wherefore do I see a man with his hands upon his loins like a woman in travel and his face turn'd into paleness And if we shall so ask we shall easily have an answer given us That so it is indeed and has cause to be so Here 's the Prophet himself travelling with the miseries and calamities of his people which now like so many pangs and throws came upon him and drew forth this bemoaning from him which he does express so much the rather that so he might draw on them to the same affections and dispositions with him who were now wholly swollen up with security and presumption and carnal confidence in their present condition not considering the sad and grievous estate which now they were in It is a Scripture which follows very pertinently upon that which we lately handled the last Sabbath day in this place and this time of the day for which cause I have fastned upon it that so though we change our Texts for the more variety and edification yet we might still hold our argument and keep to the main business it self which we drive at in this performance of awakening you and preparing you for God's judgments which hang over your heads and are threaten'd against you if we have eyes and hearts to see it and to be affected with it IN the Text it self we have two General Parts considerable of us First the Prophets Complaint or Lamentation it self Secondly the ground or occasion of this his Lamentation His Complaint or Lamentation that we have laid down in those words My bowels my bowels c. The Ground or Occasion of it in those Because thou hast heard O my Soul c. We begin with the first viz. his Complaint it self wherein again we have these particulars further observable First the parts affected Secondly the grief of those parts Thirdly the passage or vent of that grief The parts affected are described or exprest two manner of ways First in their simple proposition Secondly in their additional reduplication Their simple Proposition My bowels my heart Their additional Reduplication My bowels my bowels my heart my heart The grief of these parts is amplified from a double consideration First from the quality of it my heart is pained Secondly from the effect of it my heart makes a noise The passage or vent of this grief is again two ways considerable First as a matter of choice in
it Indeed we of this City for our particular have not as yet had it which perhaps makes us for the most part somuch hardened against it but it may be here 's the more to come Let us take heed of provoking God by our miscarriages and manifold abominations Let us take heed of slighting the Trumpet of the Ministry that so we may not hear the Trumpet of the Enemy sounding amongst us Let us be awakened with these Alarums that so we may not be affrighted with these VVars Yea let us universally endeavour to meet God by speedy and unfeigned repentance which is the best improvement of such punishments and troubles as these are It is the use which the Lord himself puts us upon to make of it as we may see in Amos 4.12 Therefore thus will I do unto thee O Israel and beecause I will do thus unto thee prepare to meet thy God O Israel Yea let us so walk and behave our selves as if we still heard the sound of the last Trump of all sounding and alaruming in our ears Thus if we do such Doctrines as these are will have their due and proper effect and work upon us It is not for us only to hear of these things and to whine and mourn for them in a desperate and tumultuous manner no but to be reformed occasionally from them that our fear and sorrow and sad apprehensions of evil to come and threatned to us may carry us so much the more speedily to God for the prevention of it And further we should hence learn also from this Scripture to be able to give an account to our selves of our selves as the Prophet Jeremy here does before us Therefore we may observe here how he enters into a solitary discourse with himself He does not put it in the Third person Because my soul hath heard but in the Second Because thou hast heard O my soul as hereby endeavouring to satisfie his own spirit in what he did and how he stood affected for his present temper and disposition in them Thus now we have done likewise with the 2d general part of the Text which is the ground or occasion of the Prophets Complaint or Lamentation and so with the whole Text it self SERMON XLIV HOS 7.8 9. Ephraim be bath mixed himself among the People Ephraim is a cake not turned Strangers have devoured his strength and he knoweth it not yea grey hairs are here and there upon him yet he knoweth not This Portion of Scripture which I have here read unto you it hath a very good agreement in it with the state and condition of these times in which we live for which cause I have now at this present made choice of it It was written many hundred years since and then directed more immediately and particularly to the people of the Jews but it has its force likewise upon our selves and is as proper to us in the improvement and application of it yea it was written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the world are come as the Apostle speaks The same Spirit of God that saw it fit for those times foresaw it that it would be fit for these wherein it is read that so we may not think our time lost or that we are busied and imployed in impertinencies whiles we are conversant in the handling of it That we may rightly understand the main drift and scope which it leads to we have in it briefly laid forth and exhibited to us partly the sin partly the judgment of Ephraim that is of Israel c. IN this present Text before us we have laid forth unto us partly the sin partly the judgment of Ephraim that is of Israel by a Synecdochical expression the part put for the whole and either or both of these are set down in four Branches which may make up to us the words of the division of the Text. First in their unhappy mixtures Ephraim hath mixed himself among the people Secondly in their indifferent temper Ephraim is a cake not turn'd Thirdly in their miserable captivity Strangers have devouredtheir strength And fourthly in their symptoms of approaching ruine and destruction Yea grey hairs are here and there upon him The two latter whereof especially and if we please also the two former are aggravated from their senslesness and stupidity and security and non-attendancy in this sad condition He knoweth it not yea to make it so much the more emphatical in the doubling and gemination of the words He knoweth it not These are the parts of the Text. We begin in order with the first viz. Ephraims unhappy mixture He hath mingled himself among the people that is he hath joyn'd himself with the Nations in their idolatrous and profane conversation this is that which is laid to his charge and that which the Lord by his Prophet does complain of in him that he thus mingled himself with the Heathen which is also justly taxable in any other of God's people besides it becomes not them especially to be joyned and and leavened with those which are opposites and enemies to Religion For the better opening of this Branch unto us there is a three-fold mixture which we may here conceive to be censur'd in them First a local mixture a mixture of place and company Secondly a Civil mixture a mixture of affinity and alliance Thirdly a Moral or Spiritual mixture that is a mixture in regard of Manners and Religion and Conversation Each of these mixtures are here condemn'd in Ephraim as joyn'd with the Nations though especially the last First their Local mixture that is of place and company It does not so well become the people of God to be mingled with the ungodly even thus yea the Scripture does often and frequently take them off from it as 1 Cor. 5.9 I wrote to you in an epistle not to company with fornicators So Prov. 1.15 speaking of wicked men My son walk not thou in the way with them refrain thy foot from their path c. And Prov. 4.14 Enter not into the path of the wicked and go not in the way of evil men Avoid it pass not by it turn from it and pass away It is not safe for the Servants of God so far as they can avoid it to be even in the company of evil persons There are two Moral inconveniences for the most partattending upon it First in that it is occasion of weakning and deadning their Graces Grace cannot so easily flourish or thrive in evil society but it is apt rather to languish and to decay it grieves the Spirit of God in his Servants when they give way hereunto causes him to absent himself from them and to be a stranger as it were unto them and not so manifestly to dwell and to abide in them The company of the wicked drives away the company of the holy Ghost and makes him to withdraw his presence Then secondly which we shall speak to more hereafter it does also surther expose
and called us with an holy calling Our holy calling calls us to holiness Fourthly Our Sanctification there 's an argument likewise from that Rom. 8.12 Brethren we are debters not to the flesh to live after the flesh And Eph. 4.23 24. Ye have put on the new man which is created in c. And Eph. 2.10 We are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works which God hath before ordained Our Sanctification does engage us to a strict kind of life in both the parts of it First as to our mortification and so it is urged by the Apostle Rom. 6.6 Knowing this that our old man is crucified with him that the body of sin might be destroyed that henceforth we should not serve sin And so ver 11. Reckon your selves to be dead indeed unto sin c. Secondly our vivification and spiritual quickening Col. 3.1 2. If ye be risen with Christ seek those things which are above Set your affections on things above and not on things on the earth That is conform not your selves to the world Lastly to add no more at this time Our Justificaion likewise that lies as a restraint upon us also Being justified freely by his Grace Rom. 3.24 and Tit. 3.7 Especially if we shall take in with it the seal of the Holy Ghost upon our consciences Eph. 4.30 Whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption Upon all these grounds and considerations have we it evidenced and cleared unto us how unreasonable a thing it is for God's people to mingle themselves with the corruptions of men of the world As contrary and unsuitable to their Election Redemption Vocation Sanctification Justification and Obsignation of all to them by the Spirit of God in their hearts and consciences Now therefore all these things considered we see here how blame-worthy those are which none of these arguments do prevail and work upon to perswade them in this particular What a shame is it for those which are Christians and profess themselves to be so to be as vain in their conversation as others when as the Lord has made so wide a difference and distinction and separation betwixt them as he has done in his dispenfations towards them For Ephraim to mix himself with the people let all those think of this who are led away either with the errors of the times in matter of Doctrine or with the miscarriages of them in matter of practice which cannot hear of any new-fangled opinion but they are ready to follow it let such as these I say consider how unsuitably they walk to Religion and their Christian profession The Lord took it very ill from Ephraim of all others that he should be tainted and defiled with the abominations of the Heathen and so will he likewise proportionably do from all others besides which are in the same condition with them He will not suffer them to go unpunished but will avenge their iniquities and miscarriages upon their own heads This is signified to us in the second sense which may be put upon these words not only as a complaint but a threatening As if the Prophet had said Ephraim shall be mingled among the people that is he shall have the same kind of judgment and punishment executed upon him that others have look as God punishes the Heathen so he will likewise punish Israel he will make no difference betwixt one and t'other And this it follows pertinently upon the other The like judgments are consequent upon the like sins For God is a just God and is no respecter of persons and his justice engages him hereunto And therefore he does upon this consideration deal thus with his people to take them off from these ungodly mixtures As Rev. 18.4 Speaking there of Babylon Come out of her my people that ye be not partkers of her sins and that ye receive not her plagues Implying thus much that as long as she was the one she must expect likewise to be the other If Ephraim will mingle himself with the people in regard of sin God will mingle Ephraim with the people in regard of punishment Now acccordingly should this argument affect us and work upon us It is true if we have any spiritual wisdom or ingenuity in us we might be disswaded from this sinful mixture as it does drive away the Spirit of God from dwelling in us and as the contrary does move him to receive us According to that of the Apostle 2 Cor. 6.17 18. Wherefore come ye out from among them and be ye separate saith the Lord and touch not the unclean thing and I will receive you And I will be a Father unto you and ye shall be my Sons and Daughters saith the Lord Almighty This if there be nothing else in it I say might take us off from this compliance and ungodly conjunction But moreover there is this considerable with it even the punishment that is attendant upon it which is an involution in common judgment But so much of the first Branch to wit Ephraim's unhappy mixtures He hath mingled himself with the people The Second is their indifferent temper Ephraim a cake not turn'd Now this as well as the former may admit of a double exposition The one as an amplification of their sin and the other as an aggravation of their punishment It may carry both senses in it according to a different application which may be made of it First Take it as an amplification of their sin we will begin with that first Ephraim is a cake not turn'd Thus it follows as an illustration of the former He hath mingled himself among the people They were ready to boast of themselves that they were the people of God that they had circumcision and the worship of God amongst them whereby they were distinguisht from other Nations and that therefore they were not so bad as perhaps they might be conceived to be To this the Prophet answers by way of anticipation to them that they were a cake not turn'd which was baked but on one side that is of an imperfect and indifferent temper in Religion They had somewhat which was good amongst them but they did not come up to that exactness which was required of them This it is such an expression as may be applyed to divers sorts of persons and has divers miscarriages in it As First it is an expression of hypocrisie and false-heartedness in Religion When people shall be good in profession and outward appearance but naughty and corrupt in their hearts their outside fair and specious but their inside unclean and odious the cleanest part uppermost the foulest underneath Here 's a cake not turn'd This is the temper and condition of too many persons in the world which have it thus with them And the Scripture does reckon them up to us Isa 29.13 This people draw near unto me with their mouth and honour me with their lips but their heart is far from me So Psal 55.21 The words of his
in its severity and unsupportableness IN the Text it self there are three general Parts considerable First an awakening Commination Woe unto you that desire the day of the Lord. Secondly a convincing Expostulation To what end is it for you Thirdly an express Conclusion or Determination The day of the Lord is darkness and not light We begin with the first of these Parts viz. The Commination in these words Woe unto you c. In which passage there are two terms to be explain'd by us First what is here meant by the day of the Lord. Secondly what is here meant by the desiring of this day of the Lord which is here censured and threaten'd in this people For the former the day of the Lord Jom Jehovah it may be here reduced to a threefold explication First to the day of death or personal dissolution Secondly to the day of captivity or National dissolution Thirdly to the day of Judgment or general Account Each of these are the day of the Lord and may promiscuously one with the other be understood of us here in this Scripture Now Secondly for the other term which is the desiring of this day and as it is here censured and threaten'd in this people this it may be taken three manner of ways First for their desiring of it rashly because they did not consider it Secondly for their desiring it scoffingly because they did not believe it Thirdly for their desiring it desperately because they did not fear it All these kinds of desire in reference to this day of the Lord in either of the fore-mentioned considerations are here condemned in them First Woe unto you that desire the day of the Lord that is that desire it rashly and foolishly because ye do not consider it Such desires as these of this day there are sometimes to be found in the world whether in reference to death and judgment or in reference to common and publick calamity First take it in reference to death and judgment There are divers persons sometimes which we meet withal who do seem very much to desire the day of the Lord in this sense though in the mean time if they duly consider it they have little cause or ground to do so Such as Job sometimes speaks of that long for death whiles it cometh not and dig for as more than for hid treasures which rejoyce exceedingly and are glad when they can find the grave Job 3.21 22. Indeed there is a desire of such a day as this which in the right constitution of it is very noble and commendable and is sometimes made the character of the true servants of God to breathe after death and departure out of the world and to wait and long for the coming of Christ to Judgment Thus old Simeon when he had seen Christ come in the flesh and now had him in his arms he sings his nunc dimittas Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace for mine eyes have seen thy Salvation Luke 2.29 30. And St. Paul he desired to depart and to be with Christ as in it self much better than to abide here in the flesh Phil. 1.23 And the Prophet Elijah as some interpret it out of an holy zeal he cryes out It is enough now Lord take away my life first for I am not better than my Fathers 1 King 19.4 Thus have the servants of God sometimes desired the day of the Lord as it concerned their own death and dissolution And this desire of theirs has been looked upon as very warrantable and commendable in them So likewise as it has concerned the last and general day of account they have desired this day of the Lord also And it hath been remarkable in them so to do Look as it was the character of the Servants of God in the days before Christ to desire and wait for his first coming his coming in the flesh Therefore Abraham is said to have seen his day and to have rejoyced and Simeon before-mentioned to have waited for the consolation of Israel So it is also now the character of God's servants in these days since Christ to desire and wait for his second coming his coming to Judgment These are compared to faithful Servants that wait for the coming of their Master and that with desire Thus Rev. 22.17 The Spirit and the Bride say come come Lord Jesus come quickly And the souls under the Altar they hasten his coming also Rev. 6.10 How long O Lord holy and true dost thou not judg and avenge our blood on them that dwell upon the earth Rev. 6.10 So St. Paul tells us that Christ will give a Crown of righteousness to him and not unto him only but also to all them that love and desire his appearing 2 Tim. 4.8 So that it seems such persons as these are there have sometimes been and are still in the world which do desire this day of the Lord and that as having no woe belonging to them neither for so doing but rather the contrary which have not been threaten'd but rather encouraged for such desires as have been in them to this purpose But yet these here in the Text they have a woe denoune'd against them for their desire of the day of the Lord and so have many others besides as those who desire it rashly and foolishly as not considering for what end they do so We may reduce it for methods sake to three Heads First from discontentedness in their own condition Secondly from presumption of their own innocency Thirdly from ignorance or misapprehension of the nature of the thing it self These people here in the Text they seemed to desire the day of the Lord thus and so are condemn'd and declared against for their desiring of it as that which is unwarrantable and unjustifiable for any to do so First They desired the day of the Lord that is the day either of death or judgment and in particular of their own personal and present departure out of a principle of discontentedness in their own conditions Because they had not all things to their mind and just as they would have therefore forsooth they would presently be gone and leave the world they wish for death and departure hence out of a spirit of impatience Thus it hath been sometimes even with some of God's Servants themselves when he has left them to themselves such fits of distemper as these have now and then discovered themselves in them Thus some have suspected it of Elijah in the place before alledged when he prayed to God to take him out of this present life it was out of the rediousness which he did conceive from Ahab and Jezebel's persecutions So Job though at other times noted for his admirable patience yet for the time he was surprized with this distemper Chap. 6.8 9. Oh that I might have my request and that God would grant me the thing that I long for even that it would please God to destroy me that he would let
need of them than in such times as these are wherein all kind of wickedness is broken loose and the common principles of honesty and civility seem in a manner to be extinguish'd and quite abolish'd in sundry persons But that which we intend is this First that men should not content themselves only with such things as these are but look after somewhat else and somewhat more They should not do as our Saviour charges the Pharisees be observant of smaller things the mint and the cummin and such as them and omit the weightier matters of the Law Judgment and Mercy and Faith these ought they to have done and not to leave the other undone Matth. 22.23 Their righteousness must not only equal but also exceed the Scribes and Pharisees That 's one thing considerable Secondly That they should look at the Principles from whence these moral and Christian duties proceed in them and that is not only from Nature but from Grace not only from the common principles of ingenuity but from Faith in Christ and a Nature renewed For look as the reasonable soul in a man does produce the same acts of sense which the sensless foul does in a Beast so the principle of Grace and the new Creature in a Christian does produce the same acts of civility and morality in him which the principles of morality and civility do in a common person And these acts of morality and civility which expose themselves in a Christian are so much the nobler from the principle from which they come in him This is that which we still press that we be careful not to mistake or to deceive our selves in a matter of so great consequence as this is Religion is a deep business and another kind of thing than the World commonly takes it to be it lies not in the head or in the tongue or in the profession but in the heart and in the spirit and conversation And it consists not so much in outward performances which yet are required in it as in inward complyance He is not a Jew which is one outwardly neither is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh but he is a Jew which is one inwardly and circumcision is that of the heart of the spirit and not of the letter whose praise is not of men but of God Rom. 2.28 29. SERMON II. MARK 12.34 And when Jesus saw that he answered discreetly he said unto him Thou art not far from the Kingdom of God There is a very wide and vast difference in mens approaches and comings to Christ which according to a various end and byass putting them upon it does admit of a various censure and interpretation All that seem to make after him are not equally affected towards him Which as we may observe and take notice of in sundry other places besides in the history of the Gospel So amongst the rest here in this Chapter which we have now before us Where we read of three sorts of persons repairing unto him the Pharisees and the Sadduces and occasionally one of the Scribes The two first of these they came to him that they might cavil with him that they might intangle him and insuare him in his discourse the one in the point of Tribute and the other in the Doctrine of the Resurrection This last was a great deal more ingenious and candid towards him who therefore discourst with him that he might learn somewhat from him and might be further instructed by him which he was the rather induced unto from his observation of the others miscarriage and the dexterity of Christ himself in dealing with them Now the words which I have here rend unto you are our Saviour's approbation of this person upon the whole matter in hand and encouragement in further proceedings c. IN the Text it self we have two General Parts observable of us First The favourable censure which Christ passes here upon this Scribe which now came unto him Secondly The ground or occasion for this passing of it upon him the Censure it self that we have in those words Thou art not far from the Kingdom of God The occasion or ground for the passing of it upon him in these When Jesus saw that he answered discreetly We begin in order with the first though the second in the method of the Text and that is the censure it self Thou art not far from the Kingdom of God For the handling whereof here are two terms to be open'd and explain'd by us First what is here meant by the Kingdom of God Secondly what by being far from this Kingdom For the first The Kingdom of God or the Kingdom of Heaven is all one and comes to one effect It is variously taken in Scripture more especially three manner of ways First for the state of Grace and that Sovereignty and Dominion which God exercises in the hearts of the faithful Thus it is taken in Matt. 13.31 where the Kingdom of Heaven is compared to a grain of mustard seed the Kingdom of Heaven that is the work of Grace in a Believer And so Luke 17.21 The Kingdom of God is within you Secondly for the state of the Gospel and God's gracious dispensations of himself towards his Church and People under the new Testament Thus it is taken Mat. 11.12 The Kingdom of Heaven suffers violence c. The Kingdom of Heaven i.e. The ministery and preaching of the Gospel Thirdly for the state of Glory and that blessed and happy condition which God's children to all eternity shal enjoy with Christ and his holy Angels in another World Thus it is taken Mat. 5.3 Blessed are the pure in spirit for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven The Kingdom of Heaven that is the Kingdom of Glory So Luke 14.15 Blessed is he that shall eat bread in the Kingdom of God Now either of these yea all of them taken together may be very well here understood as we shall have occasion to see more hereafter in the further opening of the Text. And this for the first term what is meant by the Kingdom of God The second is what is meant by being far from this Kingdom who or how any are said to be far from it Now this we must know that it may admit also of a threefold interpretation There is a threefold distance or remoteness in reference to the Kingdom of God which any are capable of First in regard of the means Secondly in regard of the terms Thirdly in regard of the event Each of these are pertinently considerable First In regard of the means Thus those are said to be far from the Kingdom of God which are destitute of those means of Grace which do lead and tend to this Kingdom Forasmuch as the end of any thing is not usually attain'd but by the means therefore those which want the means are so far forth from the end Now this remoteness in regard of the means it is again twofold either Absolute or Comparative For the absolute
speak of they provide not for the supplies of nature but rather for the supplies of lust nor yet for the superfluities of encouragement but rather for the superfluities of sin This is another piece of folly agreeable to them It 's a wonderful weakness in any when their care and endeavour and prosecution is too high above the thing for the Soul of man being a noble and excellent creature and of a sublime and heavenly nature the strength and intention of it should run out in things proportionable and which keep a correspondency with it self for a man to be serious and intent and earnest in re levi in a sleight and trivial business it 's an argument of a trivial mind it shews that the soul is not rais'd to that magnanimity whereunto it should be Why this is now the folly of all carnal minded persons they spend their labour in vain they trifle at business and they weary and turmoil themselves at play The Application of this to our selves may be to teach us to take heed of being any of this number whom God shall call fool For now that we have spoken concerning this Fool in the Gospel there is a great Question behind whether there be any more of them or no in the world For perhaps this is like him whom the Preacher speaks of in Ecclesiastes Eccles 4.8 There is one and there is not another Or it may be this is such a fool as Solomon was a wise man that there was never the like since him It may chance the whole kind of them was confined to this individual And what shall we say then Indeed this is the great business which we have such adoe to perswade men of and to bring their hearts to believe for they when they hear this story concerning this worldly rich man here in the Text are ready to speak more seriously than Job did of his friends wisdom no doubt but this is the fool and folly is dead with him But they have foolishness as well as he and are not inferiour to him yea who knows not such things as these This is the misery of all that Stulti plena sunt omnium we cannot stir out of doors but we continually meet with such mad men and fools as this men that neglect grace and happiness and salvation and communion with God and prefer trifles and bables and rattles before the eternal peace and welfare of their own precious and immortal souls I beseech ye suffer me to awaken you a little in this business and that from the consideration of that ignominy and reproach which lies upon it The name of a fool it is that which every one shuns and would by no means have cast upon him Though men do not care to be esteemed extraordinary wise yet they would not be counted fools this is a matte of the greatest and highest reproach Well if men would not be thought so let them be careful then not to be so And if we would not have the name let us take heed of that which may deserve it what 's that which deserves it I have told you all this while already This immoderate pursuit of the world and this carelesness and neglect of Heaven it is the greatest folly imaginable And remember still this which I intimated to you before that God himself reckons it folly which is the greatest prejudice of all Men they may commend it and men they may applaud it and men they may admire it as it is in Psal 49. v. 16. Men will praise thee when thou doest well to thy self That is when thou doest well to thy self in a carnal way no more but so then men will praise thee that is carnal and worldly men as thou thy self art Yea but what saies the Lord to all this This is a thing to be regarded It was the speech of our Saviour to the Pharisees in Luke 16.15 Ye are they which justifie your selves before men but God knoweth your hearts for that which is highly esteemed among men is an abomination in the sight of God And also it is the saying of the Apostle in 2 Cor. 10.18 It is not he that commendeth himself who is approved but he whom the Lord commendeth It is he alone which is approved Well men may haply please themselves with their own imaginations and conceits but when all 's done I believe he 'l be the grand fool which is a fool in God's account and that 's wisdom indeed which is wisdom in his esteem who is wisdom it self Religion 's beyond the censure of man's day Blessed be God that whatever the world counts of holiness it has yet approbation from him and whatever he thinks of earthliness it 's folly in his eyes It 's no matter what men reckon of us it 's no matter what we reckon of our selves let us approve our consciences to the Lord let us labour to be wise to salvation to apprehend the devices of Satan to faddom the depths and subtilties of our own sinful hearts Here is the mind which has wisdom Every wise man is ambitious still of the liking and of the good opinion of the wisest to be thought well of by them and should not we then especially study to be in favour and liking and acceptance with the only wise God Now alas what does he principally esteem of us for not for having so much wealth or learning or wit or birth or the like but having so much grace not for being rich to the world but for being rich to him and therefore should this be our principal endeavour This point as it should take upon all so especially upon men of learning and parts and a more noble and generous education There 's none should so contemn the world as those who have that about them which the world cannot bestow And there 's none should have more care of their souls than those whose souls are indued with a more excellent qualification Godliness it does well every where but especially in great parts and high places and ingenuous spirits because these have greater opportunities and may do a great deal more good or hurt with them and consequently receive either the greater condemnation or glory The wiser men are in a natural way the wiser they should be in a spiritual and the wiser men are for the world the wiser they should be for Heaven and their own everlasting happiness or else they do not sute and consist with themselves The Preacher in Ecclesiastes 10.1 speaking of wisdom and folly has this comparison That as dead Flies cause the ointment of the Apothecary to send forth a stinking savour so doth a little folly him that is in reputation for wisdom and honour A little folly it 's a disparagement to a wise man because as it is best agreeable so it is most discerned and discovered and taken notice of And if a little folly be so disgraceful what is then a great deal what is the greatest of all
here made by the Vine-dresser in the behalf of the Fig-tree that is of the Ministers in regard of the Flocks belonging to them which is the Forbearance of them Let it alone The Second is the Determination of the Time for the exercise and continuance of this Forbearance and that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This year also There 's a special Emphasis in this which is not to be passed by us We 'l take things as they lye before us and as they offer themselves to us to be handled by us And first This we have here intimated to us the Patience and Forbearance which is in God towards the sons of men for some time even of his own accord This also here in the Text it is a Relative particle which has respect to some former indulgence of this Lord of the Vineyard towards this Fig-tree whiles he says Let it alone now also it does imply that he had for some time let it alone already and so indeed he had as we may observe out of the foregoing verse He had spared it and let it alone for three years together in all which time he had looked for fruit from it but yet had found none That which we may observe from hence is this That the Lord does not presently proceed to Judgment upon people for their unfruitfulness but is willing and content for some time to let them alone and to stay waiting and expecting from them Here was one year looking for fruit and none then yet it is let alone He comes the next year and is also disappointed yet forbears it still one year more to try what it will do and is still disappointed and yet is still patient with it And this I say sets forth unto us the patience of God towards a people ere he proceed in judgement against them This is observable in him in divers instances and examples of it which we meet with-all in Scripture Thus it was with the Old World God did not presently bring the I lood upon them but gave them a fair warning of it long before Gen. 6.3 The Lord said My Spirit shall not alwaies strive with man for that he also as flesh yet his daies shall be an hundred and twenty years According to that of St. Peter in 2 Pet. 3.20 where it is said That the long-suffering of God waited in the daies of Noah whiles the Ark was in preparing And so for Israel he was very patient towards them 2 Chron 36.15 16. The Lord God of their Fathers sent unto them by his messengers rising up early and sending them because he had compassion on his people and on his dwelling-place But they mocked his messengers and despised his words and misused his Prophets till the wrath of God arose against his people and there was no remedy And so for Jerusalem our blessed Saviour expresses himself after this manner towards it O Jerusalem that killest the Prophets and stonest them that are sent unto thee how often would I have gathered thy children together as a Hen gathers her Chickens under her wings and ye would not Luk. 13.34 35 c. This the Lord is pleased to do upon divers considerations First out of his Nobleness and Royalty and Generosity of mind as we may so express it To shew that he does not take pleasure or delight in the death of sinners as he hath sometimes told us He loves not to destroy there where he can any way spare His long-suffering it is salvation and has that in the scope of it not only eternal but also temporal which does sometimes also follow upon it Therefore he loves to give them all the fair quarter and advantage that may be and which they are oâ—â—ble of from him There may be now and then in Trees some accidental Impediments upon them besides the natural barrenness of them which may perhaps for a year or so keep them from being so fruitful And therefore the Master of the Vineyard will not at the first cut them down but let them alone rather for a while that he may see how it will be with them and whether they 'l be constantly so yea or no. Secondly The Lord does thus with many people that thereby he may leave them so much the more inexcusable and may be justified in his proceedings against them when he comes to judgment indeed that all mens mouths may be stopp'd and that they may believe so much the more fully in God If the Lord should cut men off presently so soon as he is provoked to do it they would be ready to say he dealt too hardly and rigorously with them now therefore for a while does he forbear them Thirdly Sometimes to exercise this patience of the Vine-dressers themselves which labour and take pains about these Fig-trees God will hereby sometimes prove them and God will sometimes hereby trouble them as St. Paul observes it in himself from the non-proficiency and impenitency of the Corinthians 2 Cor. 12. ult And by his own patience and forbearance of such persons God will leave them his Ministers to a spirit of patience and forbearance in themselves in conformity to God's own example The Vse which we may make for our particular of this observation is briefly this namely that we should not therefore think our selves at any time to be wholly free or exempted from judgment because it does not presently light upon us for we may be mistaken in so thinking There 's many a man and there 's many a people which God spares it may be the first year and the second year and the third year and yet at last cuts off in the fourth spares in one hand and yet cuts off in another Forbearance is no acquittance as we use to say there 's a let us alone speaking even in anger and wrath and indignation as we find it hinted unto us in Hos 4.17 Ephraim is joyned unto idols let him alone But of this we shall have occasion to speak more hereafter out of the following words and therefore I shall pass it over here That 's one thing which is signified in this expression Let it alone this year also to wit some former forbearance which the Lord and owner of the Vineyard had vouchsafed of his own accord Secondly whiles he says here this year also here is implyed a further desire of continued patience and forbearance The Lord of the Vineyard as I shewed before had hitherto let the Fig-tree alone of his own disposition inclination Now the Vine-dresser desires him that he would do as much for one year more upon his request and intreaty for it From whence we learn thus much that those who are faithful Workmen and Labourers in the Vineyard of the Lord they desire as long as may be to keep off God's judgments from his people if they cannot wholly and absolutely prevent theâ— yet at least that they may for a while respite â—â—â—m and so lengthen out their tranquillity to them This
in Martha was as a mis-apprehension of Christ so a misplacing of her own affections She look'd after that which was but trivial and nothing to speak of the providing of her fâ—â—st c. and neglected the main chance of all which was the word of Christ This is intimated in this expression Thou art careful and troubled about many things where that which expresses many things is in the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is ordinary and common and vulgar things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So if we please we may render it and very suitable to the scope of the place And here we learn thus much that it is a great fault in Christians and those who are professors of Religion to have their minds and thoughts taken up about slight and trivial matters Coloss 3. verse 2. Set your affection on things above and not on things on the earth And it is a character of evil persons that they are minding of earthly things Phil. 3.29 And Matth. 13.22 He is condemned in the thorny ground that the care of this World and the deceitfulness of riches choaked the word that it became unfruitful This minding of such things is very unfitting in these respects First In regard of the unsuitableness of these things to their minds they are things below a Christian's spirit It is true that so far forth as we are men and consist of slesh and blood as others do so far forth we have need of those things which do tend to the sustenance and preservation of this our natural life and so far forth they may also in good sort and in a degree be tended by us but take them simply in themselves and they are exceedingly inferior and below a Christian's spirit there 's no agreement or correspondency betwixt them Take an heart which is sanctified by Grace sprinkled with the blood of Jesus Christ has the Spirit of God dwelling in it and how far are these outward things inferior to it as much and a great deal more than the sports and pastimes of children are to the thoughts of grown and grave men Secondly Because they have better and other things to take their minds up If Christians had nothing else to think of they might be perhaps excused for being so busy and careful about these because the mind of man must have somewhat to exercise and employ it self in But now there are other matters of greater and higher consequence and of better concernment There 's God and Christ and Grace and Glory to be revealed There 's one thing which is necessary which makes these many things which are superfluous to be out of date This was the fault here of Martha in the Text that she was so taken up in these trifles when she had the word of Christ to be exercised in That 's another thing which makes them unfitting Thirdly Because they little conduce to that end to which themselves are appointed Every wise man has his eye still upon his end and that scope which he propounds to himself to have a care of that Now what are all these things to that any further than as so many encouragements to carry us chearfully through our way Our main end is a better life and to be fitted and prepared for that And therefore accordingly our thoughts and affections should be pitcht on such things as do most conduce hereunto other matters are little to the purpose and sometimes do very much lead another way Ye cannot serve two Masters God and Mammon both He that will love the one must forsake the other And we see here again in the Text that Martha whiles she looked after many things she was so much the more remiss about one and that which of all other could least and worst be neglected Thus we see upon what grounds it is blameable in Christians to be intent upon trivial things This therefore justly meets with the distemper of many Christians in this particular whose thoughts are too much taken up about the world and the things thereof It is true that God does both allow and command us a moderate regard of these things as we intimated before but that these should have our hearts and affections this is that which he takes very ill from us and it is justly taxable in us when-ever it is so that these poor and empty things should possess us and have the mastery of us that Martha a godly woman and one that profest Religion that she should now be thus taken up was very irregular And so is it also for any other Christians besides and a dishonour upon Christianity it self therefore it deserved a chiding and a very tart and sharp one too as here it found from Christ for there was more in these words than is exprest there 's an Emphasis in the very naming an recital of them which Christ contents himself here withal in his dealing with Martha He does not give her any harsh language and tell her she is thus and thus that she is a worldling or a muck-worm or so only names her sin to her which was enough to an ingenious spirit Thou art careful and troubled about many things And this indeed shewed the greatness and heinousness of the offence That 's a great miscarriage indeed which the naming of it is enough to reprove And so was this here in the Text. And that 's the Second the misplacing of her affections about many things c. The Third and last thing which Christ seems here to tax in Martha is her sollicitude and distraction of spirit and excess in this business Here were two faults involved in one and so we 'll take them together First here was her excess and superfluity in the word many things as it is a note of variety And Secondly here was her perplexity and distraction in the word troubled First Here was her excess and superfluity in the word many things as a note of variety Christ did not find fault with her hospitality but she was too curious and superfluous in it From whence we may note thus much That we may over-do there where it would be a fault not to do at all we may do more than we need to do and we may do more than we should do where we should sin except we did somewhat Yea further we are apt and prone hereunto take notice of that We are very ready and subject to over-shoot our selves in things lawful and necessary and to go beyond our bounds in them licitis perimus omnes we are all undone by lawful things as by apparel by meats and drinks by traffick and commerce those things which are indulged to us and which we cannot well be without yet we sin oftentimes in the enjoyment and use of them The ground hereof is First of all The general corruption of our nature which taints the best things in us To the pure all things are pure but to them which are defiled is nothing pure c. says the
the name for good understandings now we see here how they may do so and indeed attain hereunto which is by walking in such ways as are good and which tend to everlasting life and salvation This is the great wisdom of all and most to be looked after Who is wise and he shall understand these things Prudent and he shall know them Hos 14.9 Men commonly think it a part of wisdom in them to choose such ways as are best for the world but that 's wisdom in good earnest to choose such ways as are best for Heaven and as may serve to bring a man thither Secondly It is an argument also of a gracious and savoury spirit Men choose commonly according to their affections and there 's much of their spirit in those things which they fasten upon we may see what 's within them and what principles they are acted by according to that which they make choice of A spiritual heart is most affected with spiritual objects and places its greatest delight and contentment in such things as these Thirdly It is an argument of some courage and self-denial and resolution of mind For the better part it is not commonly without opposition and resistance in the world there will still be some or other that will malign it and set themselves against it There 's hardly any man that can make choice of goodness but he shall be sure to have enemies enough for it They that hate me says David are many in number because I do the thing that good is Psal 38.20 Now therefore to make choice of it in such circumstances it argues some kind of boldness and spirit and courageousness in it Lastly It is also an argument of an elect and chosen Vessel It is a sign that God has chosen us when we choose him and such ways as these which are good and pleasing to him For there where God elects he qualifies where he makes choice of any person he does withal confer a disposition suitable and agreeable to such a choice This is that therefore which we should labour and endeavour after and be still careful of to put it in practice In every thing whereunto we apply our selves still to choose that which is best to close with the best persons to cleave to the best causes to take up the best opinions to take the best courses and ways that possibly we can that by so doing we may approve our selves the better to Christ It is the disposition of many people in the world that if there be any way worse than other they 'l be sure to make choice of that and to make it their own Now what a fondness and madness is this we see in other matters for the world how careful men are what they are able to make the best choice that may be and there 's nothing good enough for them so exact and curious are they And how much rather should they then choose the best in spiritual matters The way hereunto is first of all To beg direction of God himself for the guiding of us Alas we are but fools of our selves without his Spirit to teach us and therefore we must have recourse to him Thus the Prophet David for himself Psal 143.8 9. Cause me to hear thy loving-kindness in the morning for in thee do I trust Cause me to know the way wherein I should walk for I lift up my soul unto thee And again Teach me to do thy will for thou art my God Thy Spirit is good lead me into the land of uprightness Thus the Apostle Paul prays for the Ephesians that God would give them the spirit of revelation cap. 1. ver 17. And for the Philippians That they might abound in all judgment cap. 1. ver 9. And for the Colossians That they might be fill'd with the knowledg of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding Secondly We must also seriously weigh and compare one thing with another Good election it proceeds from good deliberation Eccles 7.27 Behold this have I found saith the Preacher counting one by one to find out the account or as some expound and read the words weighing one thing after another to find out the reason If we would choose those things that are best we must not take them in their simple proposition or have a slight and superficial view of them but examine them and dive into them and consider them in all their circumstances Thirdly Take in the advice and experience of well-grounded and experienced Christians to help us We see how men do in other matters where they have no skill or very little in such and such Commodities themselves they will take with them those that have to choose for them and so should they learn to do here It is a good rule in doubtful matters to advise with the generation of God's children which in all likelihood should know what is best and be able best to guess at it Quilibet in Arte sua credendus est Lastly To labour to be acquainted with the power of Religion our selves Those things men best choose which they are best verst in A Trades man in his own Commodities and Mysteries and so likewise a Christian And this is the first observation That it is the commendation of a Christian to make choice of such ways as are best and most approvable to Christ as Mary here did The Second is this That we are then good to purpose when we are good upon right Principles namely of judgment and consideration in us when it may be said of us as it was here said of Mary that we have chosen the better part Religion it is a matter of election it is not a business of chance but a business of choice There are many persons sometimes in the world who do not so much choose Religion as rather Religion chooses them and they stumble upon it before they are aware But this should not be sufficient for us neither should we content our selves with it but labour rather to set our selves to it upon due grounds and motives upon us Thus David concerning himself Psal 119.30 I have chosen the way of truth thy Judgments have I laid before me I have stuck unto thy Testimonies c. Beloved It is true indeed it is a great advantage to have gracious opportunities of goodness afforded unto us and we are to acknowledg God's Providence in them and to bless him for them good counsel good example good education good company and the like But yet we are not to rest our selves in these but to have somewhat further to act us We are not to be carried only by others principles but by principles of our own not only to take the better part but to choose the better part that is to take it out of a liking of it and out of an affection to it at least to do so at last and before we have done Indeed I do not deny but those helps which I mention'd before may
does it freely and willingly and of his own accord without any thing in us either to move him or mind him of it or to perswade him and engage him to it There 's nothing so free as Grace in the Collations and Distributions of it It is bestowed without any worth or Dignity in us at all to Promerit it This may appear if we shall consider but the Persons upon whom it is bestowed who are often times such as have nothing in them tending hereunto whether we take it as to worldly qualifications or else to moral It is very free in either Consideration As to worldly Qualifications first of all the Aposte Paul has here informed us how that not many wise men after the Flesh not many mighty not many noble are called But God hath chosen the foolish things of the World to confound the wise c. And Secondly as for moral Qualifications God sometimes makes choice of such as are the greatest Sinners where he passes by some other Persons of greater Civility Matthew the Publican Mary Magdalen the Harlot Saul the Persecutor the Barbarian Jaylor That Gods Spirit should blow upon these whiles it blew over others which were better what does this speak unto us but that it bloweth there where it listeth Into what can we possibly resolve it but into the will and good pleasure of God! Look what St. Paul says sometimes of the common gifts the same may we say also of the sanctifying But all these worketh that one and the self-same spirit dividing to every man severally as he will 1 Cor. 12.11 And again Vnto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gist of Christ Whatever Grace any man partakes of he has it purely from the Spirit of God who of his own accord bestows it upon them And therefore it is said in 1 Cor. 2.12 We have received the Spirit of God that we might know the things that are freely given us of God All we have it is of free grace and it is freely given and conferred upon us The consideration of this point may be thus far useful to us First as it may teach us where to acknowledge all that we receive If any have more Grace than others let them see here how they came by it not by Merit but by Gift not by any thing as deserving it in themselves but from the goodness of the Spirit of Godas bestowing it upon them and therefore not to attribute it to themselves but to Him who is the Author and Giver of it as St. Paul himself gives us an example in 2 Cor. 15.10 By the Grace of God I am that I am and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain Yet not I but the grace of God which was with me Secondly We have here an account of the difference and variety of Christians both from one another and from themselves we see why one Christian abounds in Grace more than another and we see also why the same Christian is better at one time than he is at another Both are from this ground in the Text because the Spirit bloweth there where it listeth And every one to this purpose should rest satisfied in this equal dispensation God may do with his own as he pleases and he pleases thus to do with it that so hereby he may shew his own liberty and freedom in this particular We are able to move no farther in good than the Spirit of God helps us so to do As ye know it was in the Vision in Ezekiel as the Spirit moved the living Creatures which were in the wheels so the wheels went when that went they went and when that stood still they stood still with it Ezek. 1.2 Even so is it here in these motions of the Soul we are so far forth more lively in regard either of Grace or Comfort as the Spirit of God is pleased to breathe and to infuse either of them into us And without Him we are able to do nothing as may be worth any thing to us Therefore thirdly Let us also make this use of it To be depending upon him for it If we cannot do any thing without his blowing and his blowing be onely there where he pleases we see what cause we have to keep in good terms with him and to do nothing which may be displeasing to him for if we lose his favour we lose his influence and his assistance which is the effect of it it is where he lists and onely there where he blows And therefore make much of him and wait upon him take heed of grieving so good and so gracious a Spirit as this is and besides who is so useful to us and necessary for us And further Fourthly let it teach us also tenderness and compassion towards others who it may be do not partake of so much grace or comfort as our selves For it is God and his Spirit who makes this difference betwixt us it is not we our selves Let us take heed of insulting too much over others weaknesses forasmuch as it is that Grace that distinguishes us and makes that difference that is betwixt us And that 's the second thing also in this motion its freeness that it is not engaged The third and last is its Efficacy or unresistableness that it is not nor cannot be hindred Whereever the Spirit of God will blow there is no standing out against it it blows where it lists that is it obtains whatsoever it endeavours Who hath resisted his will Surely none at all to any purpose Indeed corrupt Nature sometimes opposes the motions of Gods Spirit and that even Conversion in it self reluctates and strives against it but all in vain where he sets to the work Look as it is not in the power of a Child to hinder his own first birth even so it is not in the power of a sinner to hinder his own new birth where God undertakes and sets himself to it because his Spirit it does effect whatsoever he pleases Who hath gathered the wind in his fist as Agur makes the question in Prov. 30.4 Surely it is not Man but God Look as no man can hinder the wind or stop the blowings and motions thereof so neither can any man hinder the Spirit and stop the motions and influences thereof that they should not prove effectual This is a comfortable point in all contrary blasts whatsoever Satan who is the evil Spirit he has his blowings too and he oftentimes blows very hard 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as St. Chrysostom speaks but yet he does not blow where he lists nor can his blowings prevail against this blowing which we have here before us in this present Text which carries all before it and shall overturn and overthrow whatsoever stands in opposition to it It is said of Antichrist the man of sin and who is a great instrument of Satan that the Lord shall consume him with the spirit of his mouth and destroy
violence and misusage But his house it is free from all these And so those also that are admitted into it and are entertained in it And so much may suffice to have been spoken of the First Branch of this ultimate promise And that is the simple Intimation in these words I will receive you to my self The Second is the Additional Amplification in these That where I am there ye may be also Wherein we have exprest both the end and effect of this Assumption The end on Christ's part as that which he aims at And the effect on our part as that which we enjoy First Here 's the end on Christ's part as that which he aims at and propounds to himself in taking us to him It is that where he is there we may be also Christ desires that he and his Members should be inseparably joyned together and continually one with another This is one thing here imply'd and it is agreeable to other places of Scripture where he expresses as much As Joh. 17.24 Father I will that they also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am This proceeds from that extremity of affection and holy fondness which he has to them This is the nature of fondness and of love in the exuberances of it that it cannot endure to have the person that is so beloved to be out of sight but must have him always neer unto it And so is it also in a spiritual sense betwixt Christ and his Disciples Because he does so intensively love them therefore he desires to have them always with him Because he does so passionately affect them therefore he cannot endure to think of them to be out of his sight Where he is he would have them to be also out of his bowels and yearnings towards them And there are two things further which are involv'd in this The one is that so he may have the greater contentment in them And the other is that so they may have the greater benefit from him Both of which are obtained from this their mutual presence one with each other As we have it in that place before cited Rev. 3.20 I will come in to him and sup with him and he with me I will sup with him that is I will take contentment in him and he shall sup with me i.e. He shall have benefit from me likewise First That he may have more contentment in them Christ delights in the presence of his Servants as a reflexion of his own Graces which he bestows upon them And reflexions are very delightful because they are representations and as it were ingeminations of ones self Thus are the Graces of Christ in Believers which whiles he looks upon in them he beholds his own image in them And it is very pleasing to him so to do Secondly That they also may have more benefit from him The nearer that any are to Christ the more good do they receive from him And so it is here in their being taken up to him It is true that even here in the World they are not without their influences from him which they do partake of even at this distance through the impartments and communications of his Spirit But when they shall come to him and be with him and behold him and see him face to face it will then be otherwise and better with them And he desires that it should be so for this reason He desires that they may be where he is that so they may see that which he sees and partake of it with him as it is exprest in the place before alledged Joh. 17.24 That they may behold the Glory which thou hast given me for thou lovedst me before the foundations of the World The Consideration of this Point makes much for our love again to Christ and it should enlarge our affections towards him While he has so great a defire that we may be there where he is how much more should we defire it our selves and breath and long after it Especially considering that it is not so much his interest as ours It is his in regard of his affection who is pleased so to make it But it is ours in regard of the real benefit and advantage that comes by it which should so much the more and the rather inflame our desires after it and make us in a manner restless till we attain unto it That 's the first thing here considerable The end of this Assumption on Christ's part It is that which he himself desires That there where he is there we may be also The Second is the Effect of it on our part It is that which we hereupon enjoy and partake of our selves as consequent hereupon Christ's assuming of us makes for our perpetual abode and continuance with him Those that are true Saints and Believers they shall continually be with Christ in another World Where he is they shall be likewise This is the Doctrine of this present Text and of the whole Scripture besides in sundry places Thus in the place before cited Col. 3.4 When Christ who is our life shall appear then shall ye also appear with him in Glory And that we might not think it to be only an appearance for such a time and particular dispensation and then to cease we have it further in that other place That we shall ever be with the Lord 1 Thess 4.17 This must needs be so from the consideration of those several relations wherein God's people sland unto him First of Husband and Wife of Spouse and Beloved There 's nothing more natural or suitable than that these should live and dwell together Where the Husband is there is also to be the Wife Now this is one relation which is drawn betwixt Christ and Believers He is their Husband and they are his Spouse He has espoused them and betroathed them to himself and they are contracted and married to him Now therefore it follows from hence that they should remove and abide with him Of those it is said in Rev. 14.4 That they follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth And upon what account do they thus follow him It is because they are the Lamb's Wife Rev. 21.9 The Lamb's Wife must be at the Lamb's disposing and be there where the Lamb himself is And thus are Believers to Christ The Second relation here considerable and as making for this purpose is of a Father and his Children Parents and children they do still best together And it is very requisite that sooner or later they should be one with another It was that which Job counted as a great priviledg to himself so long as he was partaker of it not only that the Almighty was with him but that his children also were about him Where the Father is there would also be the children Now thus are we also to Christ for the enforcing of this upon us He is our Father and we are his children Begotten by him to a lively hope and born again
cut the plumes of his pride and to keep him from being puffed up for them And that 's a second Disparagement which we lay and cast hereupon Thirdly and more principally to our present purpose we do disparage humane wisdom In ordine ad talem effectum in reference to such an effect as this is which is to bring those that have it to the saving knowledg of God in Christ Here the wisdom of the world is too weak and of small or no effect it cannot do this Take a man in his pure Naturals and the meer accomplishments of humane wisdom and he cannot by these things procure to himself any knowledg in Religion and the Mysteries of Salvation And that again in a two-fold Explication First He cannot do it immediately as an effect flowing from such a cause Wit it cannot dive into Grace as I shewed before it is too weak and shallow here Nor secondly He cannot do it meritoriously by way of merit and desert at Gods hands in the right use of his parts and natural knowledg The Pelagians teach this That an Heathen by a good improvement of the light of Nature and doing that which in him lyes may merit at Gods hands the revealing of Christ unto him and the bestowing of saving Grace upon him but this has no foundation in Scripture and is contrary to experience also The world by wisdom knew not God their other knowledg did not obtain this for them Go to now let us see then in what sense we do disparage this wisdom of the world namely as in another case we seem likewise to disparage good works when disputing against our Adversaries the Papists we seem to diminish and take from good works this is not simply considered in themselves but in order to Justification and Merit when we speak of good works in themselves as duties which are enjoined us by God as evidences of our Sanctification and as the ways wherein we tend to Salvation and the Kingdom of Heaven so far forth we speak honourably of them but when we speak of them as making us perfect and to appear righteous in the sight of God and to deserve at the hands of God for us here we disclaim them So likewise here as concerning humane wisdom when we speak of it as a common gift of Gods Spirit and ordained to such and such ends within its own compass here we admire it But when we speak of it in reference to Religion and the finding out of the saving knowledg of God in Christ here we cannot but mightily undervalue it the world by wisdom knew not God that is secondly from the weakness of the faculty The third is From the perverseness of the subjects namely those persons in which this wisdom was they did not do their duty nor still do not to this purpose as they should but rather the contrary and from hence it comes to pass oftentimes that they are as they are This is a certain truth that though the world by wisdom could not know God in that sense as we have shewn it yet they might have known him more than they did if they had given themselves to it But there was and is still a manifold obstruction upon them which is a great hinderance and impediment hereunto As first Their non-attendancy that they did not heed nor apply their minds to these things A Scholar that looks off of his Book will never learn his Letters let them be written or printed before him in never so fair and elegant a character Even so it is with us to this purpose the Book of the Creatures it is a Book which is very fairly written and every letter in its full proportion so that he that runs may read it as the Prophet speaks And the Apostle Paul tells us as we may read Rom. 1.20 The invisible things of God from the creation of the world are clearly seen even his eternal power and Godhead The Power and Wisdom and Mercy and Goodness of God c. these are written upon every Creature and may there be read by us But this is that evil which is in us that we do not always so attend unto it as becomes us to do we take and enjoy the Creatures only as other Creatures to draw the natural sweetness out of them but we do not as we should do improve them to a spiritual advantage which is the priviledg belongs to us of all other Creatures we may see and taste God in the Creature which the others cannot There 's our non-attendancy Secondly It proceeds from idleness and want of taking some pains with our selves to dive into these things though there 's a great deal of God which lyes upon the top of every Creature and the whole world is a lesson to us to this purpose yet by studying and further search into the Creature we may still see more of him than otherwise we can or than otherwise we do We should consider the works of Gods hands as the Psalmist said himself did which was not only with an ordinary observation but some special intention hereupon and review again of it This because the world did not do they came from hence to be ignorant of God and not to know of him so much as they should A Scholar must not only read but study that will improve in any knowledg A third obstruction to this knowledg is pride and scornfulness of spirit because men think themselves too good to be taught or learn any thing And here now we have a further sense of these present words in the Text than as yet we have spoken unto The world by wisdom knew not God that is not only by taking it privatively but by taking it positively Here is not only Ignorantia purae negationis but Ignorantia pravae dispositionis as we use to distinguish It is not only that by wisdom they knew not God but by wisdom they were further set off from the knowledg of God their humane wisdom was here obstructive and impedimental unto them This it was not in it self as I have already opened unto you but accidentally through their own perversness and the corruption of their own evil hearts A naughty and unsanctified heart it makes the worst use of every thing even of those things which are the most excellent of all and so amongst the rest love of worldly wisdom that which should draw them so much the nearer to God it sets them so much the further from God Thus it was here with these present people Ingenio pereunt they are undone by their own wit and thus 't is with many others besides They know so much of other things as that they care not to know any thing of God They say to the Almighty Depart from us for we desire not the knowledg of thy ways as it is in Job 21.14 Well to close up all now with a brief word of Application let us consider what does result from these truths and observations
Christ crucified But why Christ crucified rather than Christ exhibited in some other consideration why not rather Christ incarnate forasmuch as that was the first news of him or why not Christ risen again or Christ ascended which was a great deal more glorious Why does the Apostle fasten upon this mystery in Religion and Christianity above the rest Christ crucified Surely there 's very good reason to be given for it First because he would give them the worst of Christ at first that he might shew he was not ashamed of him nor of that Gospel which made him known but that hereby he might the better prepare them for other Truths and make them the welcomer to them Christs Cross is the first letter of all in a Christians Alphabet and they that can take out this lesson they will learn the other fast enough Gods beginnings with us are commonly most tedious His conclusions and closings are for the most part very sweet and comfortable and so here Secondly Because Christ crucified it is vertually and implicitly all the rest For why was Christ Incarnate it was for this end that he might be crucified therefore he was born that he might die and therefore he took flesh upon him that he might lay it down again after he had taken it Again when Christ was risen and ascended what were the terms which he was risen from was it not from death and the grave his Resurrection it pointed at his suffering and death which were conquered by him So that all upon the point is Christ crucified Thirdly This was that Mystery which did most concern us for the good and benefit which comes by it as we shall hear afterwards his death was that which pacified Gods wrath and paid the debt which was due for our sins And therefore the Apostle instances in that rather than any other Lastly Christ crucified because this was that which these people had a particular hand in as instrumental hereunto they had been active in the crucifying of Christ themselves and therefore it was most fit that they should hear of Christ crucified to chuse of any thing else Therefore accordingly we shall find that this was the practise of the Apostles in the whole course and way of their Ministry still to urge and inculcate this upon those whom they Preached unto As soon as ever they had received the Holy Ghost upon the day of Pentecost they presently fall upon this as it was that which Christ himself much spoke of That the son of man must suffer many things so it was that which the Apostles of Christ much urged as Peter in his first Sermon Act. 2.23 this was that which he inforced upon them their crucifying of Christ This was that also which he preached so boldly in the Temple Act. 5.28 insomuch as the Council told him that they intended to bring the blood of that man upon them And Act. 8.32 the Providence of God directs them to a Scripture to this purpose out of Isa 53.7 8. He was led as a sheep to the slaughter and like a lamb dumb before the shearer so opened be not his mouth Thus was Christ crucified the chief point which they still urged in their Ministry And so it is that which is the chief work of ours it is the Doctrine which is to be chiefly preached by us and that upon these following Considerations First As it is a Doctrine of the greatest Humiliation it is an humbling and convincing Doctrine every Evangelical Truth being set on by the Spirit of God concurring and going along with it has an answerable work upon the conscience to bring it into a spiritual frame the Incarnation to work in us desires and affections after the new Birth the Resurrection to raise us up to new activity in holy duties c. the Ascension to carry us up to Heaven and Heavenly things and so the Passion and Crucifixion of Christ to humble us and to crucifie us for sin This Doctrine rightly preached and understood and believed and imbraced has a might power and efficacy in it for Conviction and Humiliation and to cast down th strong-holds of Sin and Satan in us This you shall see in the effect which it had upon the Apostle himself Gal. 6.14 God forbid that I should glory save in the Cross of the Lord Jesus whereby the world is crucified to me and I unto the world By the death of Christ was the world crucified to the Apostle And so St. Peter's Auditors Act. 2.37 When they heard this namely of Christ crucified then they were pricked at their hearts This same 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was that which pierced them to the soul their piercing of Christ And so the Disciples which went to Emaus this made their hearts burn If we ask how this is done I answer by an Act of Reflection and special Consideration to this purpose namely as from hence taking notice of this grievous and odious nature of sin those which make nothing of sin in the commission of it and when they are set violently upon it in the strength of their lusts and temptations they may here see what it is now in the price which was paid for it and the pain which was endured to expiate it in Christ crucified And those which make a mock of a sin and sometimes of those which warn them of it they see how sad it is in those effects which it had upon the Redeemer and this is to be a means to humble them and lay them low in themselves Every nail which was struck into his Blessed Body it is here a piercing of our hearts every thorn which stuck in that opprobrous Crown it is a thorn in our sides every drop of blood which issued out of his sides it should fetch buckets of tears from us if we had not hearts harder than the flints This Doctrine of Christs Passion it is thus in this way of Proceeding a Doctrine of Humiliation and therefore fittest to be urged in the course of our Ministry And that because this is a main part of our Ministry to humble men and convince them of sin sutable and answerable to the work of the Spirit of God upon the Conscience for that 's a main work likewise of that The Spirit when he comes he shall convince the world of sin Joh. 16.9 Now thus it should be with Preaching which is a special conveyance of the Spirit the work of this is not to sooth men up to flatter them to give them scope to sin no but rather to humble them for it Secondly This Doctrine of Christ crucified as it has cause to be the chief work of our Ministry forasmuch as it is an humbling Doctrine so it has cause likewise to be so too because it is a comforting Doctrine and a Doctrine of the greatest comfort that can be We which are Ministers we are made to be the helpers of the joy of Gods people as we are called 2 Cor. 1. ult Now
of light out of darkness c. 2 Cor. 4.6 Again secondly From the power of Satan to God Thus Act. 26.18 We have both these expressions joyned together To open their eyes to turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God Men before their effectual calling they are under the power and thraldom of Satan and led captive by him at his will whithersoever he pleases But now conversion it is a recovery out of this snare as it is called 2 Tim. 2.26 This it strikes off the Fetters and Bolts and Chains which a sinner was held with as it was with him possest in the Gospel Thirdly From the world to the fellowship of Christ and the Saints 1 Cor. 1.9 By whom ye are called into the fellowship of his son A man by his effectual calling is made member of another Society and Corporation than he was of before and he has a spirit given him answerable to that Society to converse withall a natural man he is unfit for holy communion conversion it does mightily raise him up hereunto Lastly From a state of Hell and Wrath and Death to a state of Life and peace and salvation Thus as we are said in some places of Scripture to be called to grace so in others to be called to glory and such terms as these are as not to be called to uncleanness but unto holiness 1 Thes 4.7 so not to be called to wrath but to obtain salvation 1 Thess 5.9 And again 2 Thes 2.14 He hath called you by our Gospel to the obtaining of the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ These are the terms from whence and to which And this sets forth unto us the excellency and dignity of our calling considered in it self when we are called to be Christians and Believers we do not change for the worse but for the better we are advanced and promoted and set up to a more noble condition than we were in before and accordingly does the Scripture here put such denominations upon it of an high calling Phil. 3.14 Of an holy calling 2 Rom. 1.9 Of an heavenly calling Heb. 3.1 And so much of the parties here spoken of in their personal qualifications Them which are called I come now to them in the second place in their natural qualification both Jews and Greeks this must be taken in connexion with the former and in reference to it the Apostle had in the verse before laid a disparagement upon such of these people as concerning their rejection and ill entertainment of the Gospel affirming it to be to the Jews a stumbling-block and to the Greeks foolishness Now that he might not be here mistaken as condemning these whole Nations at large he here limits and qualifies this censure But unto them which are called both Jews and Greeks c. Before we come to the main point observe here first of all a profitable instruction in general and that in reference to practise which is briefly this That in the laying of censures at any time upon a generality and community of persons whether Nations or Societies of men we must take heed whiles we find fault with some that we do not indefinitely condemn all This was St. Paul's care here whiles he censured Jews and Greeks he would exempt some of them from this censure and so he does also in other places As to the Corinthians when he writes unto them and makes mention of strange kind of sinners Such were some of you 1 Cor. 6.11 He does not say all but some So 1 Cor. 4.18 Now some are puffed up as though I would not come unto you And to the Thessalonians 2 Thes 3.11 We hear that there are some among you which are disorderly c. He restrains and confines his censure to some and so our blessed Saviour to his Hearers There are some of you that believe not John 6.64 And so again more expresly John 13.18 I speak not of you all I know whom I have chosen c. This restriction and limitation is requisite First To prevent discouragement in the condemned that so we may not grieve and trouble the minds of those which are innocent and guiltless When those which are good and holy shall conceive themselves to be wrapt and involved in the same censure with those that are otherwise this is a great discouragement to them and a grieving of their spirits which we should be especially tender of Not break the bruised Reed c. Secondly To prevent scandal in the standers by and that others may not be offended at them for it when those who are strangers to the persons shall hear all at large to be condemned this may be an occasion sometimes to make them think ill of those which are blameless thereby to bescandaliz'd Thirdly To prevent injustice in our selves and that we may not give wrong judgment He that justifies the wicked and he that condemns the just both of them are an abomination to the Lord says Solomon Prov. 17.15 Now this latter we must here take heed of which we fall into by indefinite censure This does therefore meet with the reshness or malice or what you will of many persons in this particular ye shall have some people so to condemn an whole company as that they except and spare none at all in it If some are it may be many of them faulty why in this case condemn all without any exception or limitation They are all so without difference This is the practise of envy and folly In the Ministry fall upon the whole Tribe for the miscarriage of some In the Magistracy upon the whole state-Government because some are amiss in it in any Calling or undertaking whatsoever fly in the face of the whole profession for the fault of some which are irregular in it This is contrary both to Religion and Reason a senseless and a malicious business The Apostle Paul in this present Scripture gives us a better example But with them which are called both Jews and Greeks c. As who should say Though I condemn some and most yet I do not censure all and this may be observed in General But to speak more particularly to the Words To them which are called both Jews and Greeks We see here that God has his Numbers and Lot and Portion more or less in all People and Nations without any difference Jew and Gentile both may be called and so are In Christ Jesus there is neither Jew nor Greek Col. 3.11 That is there is no difference of either as concerning the priviledges of Salvation they have each of them an interest in them This is that which the Apostle Peter takes notice of in his discourse to Cornelius Acts 10.34 Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons But in every nation he that feareth him and worketh righteousness is accepted of him This may be made good unto us from these considerations First Both Jew and Gentiles they are the subjects
the matter which the Act is exercised about and conversant in towards this object and the Argument whereby or whereupon we proceed in dealing with them First For the Act or what it is which is done it is perswading We perswade 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 some read it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 per 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This is an expression which carries a various Emphasis First It is a word of endeavour we perswade that is we labour to do so Indeed if we speak of it as to the event so we do not always do it it is our misery and our great unhappiness that we cannot and more ours than any ones else Non suadebis etiamsi persuaseris as he said That that though we have as much cause and more than any others besides to perswade in that which we undertake to perswade men of yet we cannot so readily effect it men will not be perswaded by us even in such things as does concern them very nearly to be convinced and perswaded of Yet who has believed our report and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed we may complain with that Evangelical Prophet Isa 53.1 As for some other kind of persons that come with their fables and fancies and fopperies and delusions and Astrological Predictions these can perswade when they list to put an whole City into a fright for I know not what But we which bring news and tidings of the wrath of God against sin of judgment and eternal condemnation We which mention the terrour of the Lord yea and that upon knowledg too not meer guesses or conjectures but have good ground for that which we say We cannot stir men nor in the leaft manner perswade them they will not believe what we say as having any reality or certainty in it Well but for all that says the Apostle we perswade and so we do namely as I said in regard of our endeavour and application of our selves hereunto We in the execution of our Ministry do labour and study to perswade men if they will be perswaded by us and it is our duty so to do To do all that in us lies to convince men of that wretched condition which they are in by reason of sin and the danger which they are exposed unto for it This is that work which is proper to us and we do not go out of our way when we are conversant in it Secondly It is a word of mollification We perswade men we do not compel them Fides non cogenda sed suadenda It is a rule of ancient observation and it hath its truth in it according to a due explication and right apprehension which is in regard of the inward acts of the mind and the ultimate resolution of the understanding considered immediately Indeed there may be some kind of compulsion to the outward means and the attending upon them and likewise an use of such means extrinsecally as may cause men to set their understandings on work and to give heed to that which is spoken but directly and immediately to force it this is not agreeable to it as I may force a man to look though I cannot force him to see The work of the Ministry it is not a Physical work but a Moral and so is to be looked upon by us This sutes with the word that follows namely Men We perswade men men must be dealt withal as men and that is by perswasion Hos 11.4 I drew them with the cords of a man What are they namely sound and convincing arguments which might perswade and bring off their understandings to those things which were propounded unto them This is that which we are to do in the Ministry and which God himself likewise does in Regeneration and the conversion of a sinner he does here perswade Indeed when we speak of God he does so and somewhat else that we may not mistake he does not only propound arguments and barely offer such considerations to our understandings but he does likewise forcibly incline them and irresistibly bring them off to those things which he offers and propounds he draws us and makes us to run after him whereby he doth at the same time both preserve the faculties of the soul in that nature which is proper unto them and likewise maintain the efficacy and soveraignty of his own Grace But for us in the Ministry of the Word we do no more than only tender and exhibit such truths to the mind and leave it to God himself to inforce them and set them upon it It is not all the reason or argument in the world which is able to convince and perswade a man without the influence of the Spirit of God When therefore it is said here We perswade you must remember in what sense it is spoken namely by way of Preparation and proposition of such and such truths and arguments which in their own nature are apt so to do It is not in the power of all the Ministers nor men in the world to perswade the hearts and conscience properly and directly and absolutely in the strict sense and notion of the word No this is no work of ours but of God alone God shall perswade Japhet to dwell in the tents of Shem Gen. 9.27 The good old man his Father Noah the Preacher of Righteousness both by his Doctrine and likewise by his Life he had endeavoured it often but in vain and could not do it he could not perswade him by all the Logick and Rhetorick which he had used unto him there was no moving of him only by himself no but he leaves it to God to do it for him and commits it to his transaction as that which was most likely to succeed and to take effect And so must it be also with us which are Ministers as to our performances expect and desire that God may perswade by us but not to think that we of our selves shall be ever able to perswade We do but perswade almost as Paul sometimes did Agrippa Almost thou perswadest me to be a Christian. It is God that must perswade altogether But yet thirdly this expression We perswade it is moreover a word of efficacy too and that likewise in reference to us in our dispensations though not in regard of the effect of our Ministry yet at least in regard of the performance and manner of ordering it so we perswade effectually when as namely we so handle the word in the preaching and publishing of it as that it may carry some life and power with it This was that which was observable in our Saviour He taught as one having authority and not as the Scribs Mat. 7.29 My speech and my preaching says he it was not with the enticing words of mans wisdom but in demonstration of the spirit and with power that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men but in the power of God 1 Cor. 2.8 Not in enticing words or not in the perswading words
for it so much also for that the Explication of the Apostles Constancy in this Expression in two particulars both in point of Doctrine and Censure Now to draw up this whole Discourse of the Apostle into a brief sum and conclusion We may not rest our selves only in these expressions barely propounded as if his intent had been no more but this to shew his Power and Authority over Angels or others as to the Anathematizing of them no but there 's a further drift in them than all this which we may reduce to Three Heads There 's a threefold respect of all which hath been hitherto spoken First The inflexibility of the Gospel Secondly The Duty of the hearers of it Thirdly The misery of false teachers First We have here set before us the inflexibility and unvariableness of the Gospel and Doctrine of Christ that it is a thing which does not change with times or persons or conditions but is still one and the same otherwise the Apostle could not have been thus absolute and peremptory about it What was Religion formerly it is Religion still and what is now Religion it was Religion many years ago in the Generations which are past and will be and must be likewise to the end of the world We speak now in regard of the things themselves in their own nature Indeed mens opinions alter and vary about them but the points themselves are still the same we can have no new Gospel nor new Jesus nor new Spirit of God as the Apostle seems to imply in the Scripture before alledged All these things are unalterable and inviolable and indispensable there 's no changing nor bartering of them Look as the principles of nature are immutable so likewise the principles of grace That the Principles of Nature are so is very clear Reason is the same in all men and in all nations and in all ages and the same common principles of it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as we call them they are scattered and disperst and communicated to the whole world This it holds also by a proportion as to the Principles of Religion and Christianity Though so many have not these Principles in them as have the Principles of Nature yet so many as have them they have them as immutably and unchangeably one as the other and ye may as soon rase out these as ye may rase out them The Ground hereof is this Because these things are laid in the Nature of God himself who alters not as God himself is unchangeable so is his Truth which issues and proceeds from himself And such a kind of thing is the Gospel it is an Extract and Emanation from God it was hid in him and it does spring out and flow forth from him And so the Apostle in another place seems to derive it 2 Cor. 1.18 c. As God is true our word toward you was not yea and nay For the Son of God Jesus Christ who was preached among you by us was not yea and nay but in him was yea for all the promises of God in him are yea and in him Amen unto the glory of God by us From hence will now follow That therefore our faith does not stand in the wisdom of men but in the power of God as it is 1 Cor. 2.5 Christianity and the Doctrine of Religion is not as any man living will determine but as God himself has done it to our hands and we must fetch it out of his written word where his will is revealed unto us and which is still one and the same yesterday and to day and for ever Therefore those that are every day in a new opinion and change their Religion with the fashions we see here what to think of them even as of those that do not know or understand what Religion is or what belongs unto it which is a constant and certain business a thing imbred and connatural where it pleases God to vouchsafe to bestow it and such as is not easily rooted out yea indeed at all out of that heart in which it is wrought Look as no man that has common sense and reason in him will be beaten out of such and such Principles If an Angel from Heaven should say that black were white or white black or contradict any thing which comes within the verge of sense we would not believe him so neither will a Christian in these things which belong to Christianity therein there is as great certainty yea greater than in the principles of nature That 's then the first result or conclusion which does follow from this Text viz. The inflexibility of the Gospel The second is the Duty of the Hearers of it and that particularly in reference to the Dispensers which is this not to have the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ in respect of persons This is clear also from the words wherein we are discharged not only from the Apostles themselves but also of the Angels from Heaven It 's no matter who 's the Preacher but what 's the Sermon not who it is that speaks this or that but what it is which is said by him Indeed for the most part we do rather look after the former than we do after the latter If men who are of esteem with us do deliver at any time such and such points unto us we receive them let them be what they will be swallow them without chewing let them go down without any sticking or straining or stopping at all at them but this is not safe for us to do if we will be ruled by the Apostle himself who to this purpose restrains us and in case of notorious Error and Contradiction to the Doctrine of Scripture Though we or an Angel from Heaven should Preach it he will not allow it that 's the second Corolary Thirdly Here 's the danger of all Seducers and false teachers which is this that they lye under a curse and are exposed to a most severe Anathema and that uttered not in passion or fury or lightness or by a private person such an one as had nothing to do with it but by Authority and by the Apostle of Christ This has somewhat more in it than the world is commonly aware of It is a dangerous thing to be under the pressure and weight of an Apostolical or Ministerial Imprecation and the rather as we do not presently see the sad effects and consequences of it This is that which falls heavily upon those persons which do corrupt the Doctrine of Christ and abound with their novel opinions and innovations in matters of Religion they are here by the Ministry of St. Paul long ago pronounced to be accursed Neither does this Curse light only upon the Preachers and Authors and Devisers of these Errors but in part also breaks upon the receivers which we may take in with it and add unto it Those that admit of such points as those are whenas they have been formerly taught better they may not
of Faith There are many which reckon themselves in the highest form of Divinity which are in the lowest form of Christianity as having little of the true knowledg of Christ abiding in them Secondly Weaker Christians are compared to little Children as for the smallness of their growth so for the shallowness of their understanding and the weakness and feebleness of their digestion Little children they cannot digest strong meats as is before implied no more can weaker Christians stronger or higher truths There are some Truths in Religion which weaker minds are apt to abuse and to pervert to their own perdition as the Apostle Peter tells us some did with those hard things in Pauls Epistles 2 Pet. 3.16 They are too strong and difficult for them 1 Cor. 3.1 Thirdly Little children they are froward and apt to be complaining in regard of the tenderness which is in them a small matter troubles them and so it is with weak Christians there 's a peevishness and morosity upon them from whence a little thing molests them and soon puts them out of frame Fourthly and lastly as most pertinent to the Text. Little children they are not long in a mind they quickly change and alter their opinions and so it is with weaker Christians It was so in particular with these Galatians for which the Apostle indeed does here call them little children they were soon removed from him that had called them c. chap. 14. Upon this account does the Apostle also express himself after this manner to the Ephesians That we henceforth be no more children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine Take little children and ye may turn them which way ye will and that which to day they play with to morrow they are ready to cast away The same desposition is there in weaker Christians both in regard of Teachers and Doctrines those Teachers which for the time they admire within a while they have enough of them and those Doctrines which now they imbrace ere long they 'l be of a contrary mind and judgment to them But so much of the first thing here considerable which is the Title or Compellation Little children c. The second is the condition in which he stood in reference to them and that we have in these words of whom I travel in birth again Wherein two particulars more First The simple Proposition of it I travel in birth Secondly The additional Reiteration I travel in birth again For the first The simple Proposition The Apostle says he travels in birth with these Galatians where having before call'd them little children he still continues the metaphor about them by resembling and comparing himself to a travelling woman and so upon occasion he is made all things to the people of God sometimes a spokes-man to betratb them 2 Cor. 11.2 I have espoused you to one husband that I might present you a chast virgin to Christ sometimes a Father to beget them 1 Cor. 4.15 For in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the Gospel sometimes a Nurse to cherish them 1 Thes 2.7 We were gentle among you even as a nurse cherisheth c. sometimes a Mother to bear them My little children of whom I travel in birth And this latter is that which we are now to consider of at this present time Here 's that wonder which the Prophet Jeremy speaks of of a man travailing with child in Jer. 30.6 The Apostle Paul here assumes it to himself but he does not restrain it to himself he does by this expression signifie the condition of the Ministerial employment especially in the hands of those which are faithsul in it it is like the travel of a woman in child-birth of whom I travel in birth There are three things especially which are observable in a travailing woman and each of them appliable to a Minister and Pastor of souls First Sense of pain Secondly Desire of delivery Thirdly Fear of miscarriage First sense of pain There 's pain amd labour in travel so great as that other things which were painful are set forth and resembled by it in Scripture and a woman when she is in traved we say she is in labour as if there were no labour to speak of but only that Now this is also considerable of us in the work of the Ministry howsoever some may count it and others may make it yet in it self and in the conscionable discharge of it it is a laborious work And accordingly we shall find it in Scripture exprest in so many terms 1 Cor. 3.9 We are labourers together with God 1 Cor. 15.10 I laboured more abundantly than they all 1 Tim. 5.17 They that labour in the word and doctrine Still the work of the Ministry is represented and exhibited to us as a business of pains and labour and so indeed it is Indeed it is so differently to a difference and variety of persons as it is in the other kind of travel and bodily child-birth some have an easier pull of it than others accordingly as it please God to be assistant to them as it is noted of the Hebrew-women Exod. 1.19 So here in this spiritual travel according to different gifts and inablements the labour is different but yet all who are that which they should be have their share in this pain and labour This as it is a good Meditation to Ministers themselves to teach them with what thoughts to enter upon so weighty an employment so it is also a good item to people how to carry themselves towards them even by knowing them that labour amongst them and admonish them and to esteem them very highly in love for their works-sake as the Apostle Paul makes that use himself of it to the Thessalonians 1 Thes 5.12 13. We see what cause we have to bear a tender affection to the true Ministers of Christ to pity them and to pray for them even as we would for a woman which is drawing near the time of her travel so should we for those which are understanding such a great work as this is even seek to God earnestly for them especially considering that it is for our sakes and in reference to our good that it is undertaken by them That 's one thing which is considerable in this resemblance of the work of the Ministry to travel viz. sense of pain The second is desire of delivery A travelling-woman she longs to be eased of her burden with which she goes and waits for the times of her redemption and freedom from it and she has a great desire to bring forth what she carries into the world So also had the Apostle here of doing good to these Galatians he was with child till he had wrought some what upon them and brought them into a good temper of spirit This is another thing observable in a good Minister from whence he is said to travel in child for those which are committed unto him Thus Rom. 1.11 I
away from us A Christian when he does at any time find himself in any cheerful and comfortable frame of spirit he should endeavour to keep it up and maintain it allhe can as that which is of very great consequence and importance to him not only for the sweetness and pleasingness of the condition it self but also in reference to that duty which is to be performed by him yea we must know that it is also more pleasing to God himself that his Children upon good and right grounds should walk comfortably and cheerfully before him and rather to close with the Consolations of his spirit than to lye down under the suggestions of Satan or the false and dark representations of their own sad and mis giving hearts therefore walk in the spirit also in this sense that is in the comforts and encouragements of the spirit And so much may suffice of the first term in these words to be explained by us namely what is meant by the spirit which we have shewn in a twofold Explication In the spirit that is in his Graces and Principles as subjected and radicated in us walk in the spirit that is walk after a spiritual manner and in the spirit that is according to his motions and suggestions as objected and propounded to us walk in the spirit i. e. walk according to the guidance and moderation of the Spirit of God The second Term here to be considered is walking and what is meant by that Now in this there are three particulars which seem to be intimated and implied First Here 's implied activity in opposition to bare speculation or profession or idleness in Religion Walking it is a business of motion he that walks he does not stand still Secondly Here 's implied strength in opposition to faintness or remisness he that walks he moves strongly Thirdly Here 's implied perseverance in opposition to declining or giving out he that walks he moves constantly All these particulars are in walking and so appliable to our Conversation in the spirit First Here 's implied activity in opposition to bare speculation or profession or idleness in Religion he that walks he moves himself and does not stand still And thus must it be with us in Religion an the ways of God We must be active and put forward in them it is not only have the spirit or understand it or pretend to it no but walk in it that is be careful to improve the Doctrines and Principles of it in the activity and fervency of a godly and holy Conversation This is that which is in a special manner required of us as Christians and accordingly we shall find t preach'd and urg'd upon us As in vers 25. of this present Chapter If we live in the spirit let us also walk in the spirit that is if we have a principle of spiritual life in us let us carry our selves answerably thereunto Look as the soul in the body it is not there after an idle manner but it does distribute motion and vigor to the several parts and members of it even so should it be with grace in the soul it should not nor will not be there to no purpose but so as to make the man of God perfect and ready to every good work that I may use the words of the Apostle Paul in 2 Tim. 3. ult And so the Apostle Peter also signifies unto us in 2 Pet. 1.8 When he had spoken of the several graces of the spirit in the words before If these things says he be in you and abound they will make you that ye shall not be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledg of our Lord Jesus Christ This life of the spirit in us should work in us a walking up to it and whiles it is said here walking we may take notice of the variation of the phrase in the Original Text for it is not only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which latter signifies a regular and orderly walking a walking by rule so it becomes us to walk who live in the spirit so to walk as not turning either to the right hand or to the left not carried by our own corrupt lusts nor yet overswayed by the mis-guidings of others but led by the sweet conduct and inclinations of the Spirit of God in us and doing that which he requires of us In a word This is that which is commended to us in this Text that our conversation be answerable to our principles and that as we make any claim to Religion more than others so we should behave our selves suitably thereunto It is not leaves that God stands upon but fruit it is not profession but action it is not only the principles which are in us but the works and duties which come from us in a correspondency and agreement to those Principles Not every onethat saith Lord Lord shall enter into the kingdom of Heaven says our blessed Saviour but he that doeth the will of my father which is in Heaven Matth. 7.21 It is doing that God does principally look after And this it does sadly come home to the consciences of many people in the world which are very guilty in this particular which have a name that they live but are dead as was said of the Church of Sardis which talk much of the spirit and the gifts and graces of it but in the mean time shew but little power and efficacy of it upon their hearts by framing of their lives thereafter as it becomes them to do such as these can have but little comfort whiles they live here in the world or hope and expectation when they go out of it so remaining We see how the Scripture puâ—s all still upon action If ye know these things happy are ye if ye do them John 13.17 And then are ye my friends if ye do whatsoever I command you John 15.14 And he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever 1 John 2.17 and many more places besides tending to this purpose Therefore we should not content our selves with any thing below this whatsoever it be First Not with agreat measure of knowledg only no more but so let not that satisfie or content us the devils themselves have this in great abundance and yet but miserable creatures they know and believe and tremble as the Apostle James speaks of them And there were many in this Church of Galatia to whom St. Paul here writes his Epistle which were very knowing and intelligent persons as to the Doctrine of Religion and Christianity which yet for all that the Apostle seems not to be satisfied with Therefore we may observe that he does not say Spiritually understand the law but walk in the spirit There have been some who have so supersticiously sought after and urged the former as that they have laid all the stress of Piety and true Religion wholly thereupon and counted them the only spiritual men which were exercised therein namely in finding out the
sense and meaning of the Scripture as they have thought after a spiritual manner and in the mean time departed from the power and scope of it by leading lives opposite and contrary thereunto But the Spirit of Christ here by the Apostle requires of us to make the Word of God the Rule of our life Secondly We may not content our selves neither with some Discourses an inlargements of speech as tending to Piety which is another thing which many are subject much to rest in and to satisfie themselves withal There are many which if out of the strength of parts or the advantage of company and education and converse they can speak commendably and plausibly in Religion that they have then discharged themselves and done all which is required of them nay but it is not this which will serve the turn neither This walking in the spirit it does imply more than simple discourse or Amplification of speech in Divine and Spiritual Points it is not talking but walking which is here commended unto us not the walking only of the tongue but of the whole man Thirdly It is not only good meanings and intentions as some please to call them which should content and satisfie us neither There are many which go no further than these pretend they have as good a mind to God-ward as any other though they do nothing which savors of so much in them promise and vow and resolve and are full of good purposes but such as at last come to nothing at all in them Now all such as these are cut off by this Exhortation Walk in the spirit It is not enough for men to have good intentions but they must have answerable actions it is not enough for men to have good purposes but they must have answerable performances they must do that which they do resolve on Indeed it is true in some cases God accepts of the will for the deed and the intention for the performance it self namely there where we are extrinsecally hinder'd and debar'd of an opportunity of performance as we may see for Abrahams offering up of his Son God was well-pleased with his willingness thereto and accordingly accepted it and so for Davids building of the Temple God took it very well from him that he had a mind and desire to do it though he did not do the thing it self as being prevented by Divine Dispensation This his Son Solomon signifies concerning him in 2 Chron. 6.8 The Lord said to David my Father Forasmuch as it was in thine heart to build an house for my Name thou didst well that it was in thine heart Mark thou didst well because it was in thine heart to do so God looked upon it as well-doing good actions are good intentions incarnate because there was well-purposing and well resolving for as the thought of foolishness is sin so the thought also of goodness is grace and so to be accounted but yet where there 's opportunity for action there 's somewhat more which is required of us We must not rest our selves in good desires but endeavour to bring them into accomplishment what we can through the infirmity of the flesh and that 's the first thing implied in this walking viz. Activity c. Secondly Here 's implied strength in opposition to faintness and remisness he that walks he moves strongly so must a Christianin his course of Christianity He must labour to express some strength and vigor therein he must be able to do somewhat more than other men and the generality of people in the world in the subduing of corruptions in the bearing of afflictions in the performance of duties it does not become such an one as has the Spirit of God in him to be overcome or yield there where perhaps another would be foil'd no but as he has been made partaker of a nobler and higher principle so to put forth the vertue of it in his whole life and conversation both to the Honour and Glory of God as likewise to the greater advancement of Religion it self Thirdly Here 's implied also constancy in opposition to declining and giving back walk in the spirit that is continue and go on in goodness and proceed still from one degree of grace to another here 's improvement and perseverance in Holiness which is commended to us under this expression as it is said of the People of God Psal 84.7 That they go from strength to strength till they every one of them appear before God in Zion So it should be with us in our Christian course we shoul never give over till we come to our journeys end till we attain the end of our faith even the salvation of our souls as the Apostle Peter speaks 1 Pet. 1.9 Forgetting those things which are behind press forward Phil. 3.13 There are many which begin as it were in the spirit but they end in the stesh as the Apostle speaks of these Galatians they set upon that which is good but they do not persist and persevere in it Now this is that which he does here over and above require of them and in them of all others besides which pretend to Christianity And so now I have done with the first Particular in this first General viz The Affirmative Injunction or Precept which the Apostle here commends to these Galatians and in them to our selves Walk in the spirit The second is the Negative or Prohibition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and do not or ye shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh I put them both together because the words will bear either and I find them both in our own English Translation the one in the Margent the other in the Text. According to the former so it has in it the nature of a Prohibition or Dehortation as shewing what should not be According to the latter so it has in it the nature of a Promise or comfortable intimation as shewing what shall not be We may if we please take notice of both And first of the former sense as it carries in it the nature of a Prohibition and as shewing a Christians duty Do not fulfil the lusts of the flesh the Subjunctive for the Imperative Where we may by the way observe this in the general how careful the Spirit of God is to set us and keep us right and what means he uses thereunto Here 's precept upon precept and line upon line and negative upon affirmative one thing after another to make it so much the more full and effectual to us one would have thought it might have been enough to have said this Walk in the spirit no more but so for whiles we do thus we are not likely to do much amiss as we shall hear afterwards but the Apostle is not content with that he adds this to it moreover And do not fulfill the lusts of the flesh This he does upon a two-fold ground First His own tenderness and jealousie over us Secondly Our falseness and the slipperiness of
but to sin also thereby to humble him and bring him low and to shew him the vanity and sinfulness of his own corrupt heart But now when a man walks in the spirit and is careful to keep close to God God will free him from such evils as these Again secondly It holds also on Satans part who in this case has not this incouragement to tempt as thinking he shall but lose his labour and do all to no purpose It is true indeed that Satan is not easily put out of heart in regard of his temptations nor yet does he always forbear men because they have more grace in them nay therefore does hereafter sometimes so much the more violently set upon them he throws his sticks the fastest at those trees which have the most fruit upon them because he thinks thereby he shall have the greater booty but yet where he sees Grace in the activity and the exercise and improvement of it in a spritual way he is not so much heartened and incouraged and provoked to tempt men as otherwise he would be Resist the Devil says St. James and he will flee from you Give him but the least advantage and he will be sure to take it and improve it to the utmost but resist him an give denial to him and then he is gone Why thus now do those that walk in the spirit they leave no hole for Satan to come in and they put on all their spiritual armour whereby they stand against the wiles of the devil Ephes 6.11 Thirdly Walk in the spirit and ye shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh that is ye shall not have leasure or opportunity to fulfil them The more business a man has in goodness the less vacant he is to sin and has less time for the committing of it This a man shall be sure to find upon tryaland experience of it That man that truly walks in the spirit will find so much work for him to do in a spiritual course for the watching of his own heart for the getting of a farther stock of Grace for the serving of God in his relations and the place wherein God has set him as that he will find but little leasure for the lusts of the flesh at all And this is another Explication Lastly Walk in the spirit and ye shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh that is ye shall be kept from the thing it self in regard of the immediate influence and efficacy of a spiritual Conversation which it has in the nature of it for the restraining and preserving of the heart from any sinful miscarriage This ye shall not as to actual accomplishment we shall find to be true according to all the former senses and explications which we have given of this walking in the spirit take it in which ye will and ye shall find that in the practise of it Ye shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh First Take it in the Graces and Principles of the spirit Walk in the spirit so and ye shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh The more spiritual we are in our Principles the less carnal shall we be in our Conversation This is clear from the words that follow in the next verse to the Text the flesh lusteth against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh and these are contrary one to the other so that ye cannot do the thing that ye would Ye cannot do the things that ye would it holds true of either part not only as to the doing of good ye cannot do the things that ye would that is whereby ye would with your sanctified will because the flesh which is in you is an hinderance and impediment to you but also as to the doing of evil ye cannot do the things which ye would neither that is which ye would with your corrupt will because the spirit which is also in you is here a curb and restraint upon you Look as the inherence of sin and corruption remaining in us keeps us from a full and perfect walking in the spirit so the infusion of Grace and Holiness abiding in us also keeps us from an absolute fulfilling of the lusts of the flesh Again Secondly Take it also in the motions and suggestions of the spirit and they all take us from the fulfilling of the lusts of the flesh whether we understand it of the suggestions of Counsel or whether we understand it of the suggestions of Comfort they do either of them hold us back in this particular First The suggestions of Counsel the directions and excitements of the spirit they are such as if we follow them we shall be sure never to fulfil the lusts of the flesh which by the way shews the horrible blasphemy and wickedness of some persons in the world which would make their lusts of the flesh to be the motions and suggestions of the Divine Spirit What a grievous and fearful thing is this yea and how false is it too and incongruous the Spirit of God is an holy Spirit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Spirit of Holiness it self as the Scripture stiles him and therefore he does not nor cannot provoke men to that which is unholy no but it is the desperate vileness and rottenness of their own corrupt hearts together with the spirit of Satan of joyning and complying with them and improving of them Satan hath fill'd thy heart to lye against the Holy Ghost as Peter to Ananias So likewise secondly for the suggestions of Comfort which the Spirit of God does let in into us if we walk after them also we shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh spiritual comforts and consolations they do not breed security and presumption or make men the more to abound in sin as some men vainly pretend against them no but where they are in reality and good earnest they make men so much the more to avoid sin and to be more shy and fearful of it To take heed of doing any thing whereby we should deface our evidences and lose that sweet and comfortable testimony of Gods love which he does vouchsafe unto us This is the proper improvement of such experiences as these are in the hearts of those which are God's People as also the proper consequence and connexion of the things themselves The Consideration of this point in hand may be thus far useful to us as it may serve to put us upon the search and examination of our own hearts and ways we may see what our selves are according to this Doctrine There are many which pretend to the Spirit and to the walking in it Well but how are they now as to this particular whereof we now speak the fulfilling the lusts of the flesh When men give themselves over to these without any curb or restraint at all Can they say and say with any truth that they walk in the spirit Certainly no such matter He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk even as
there are two things denoted in it First The Original and descent of so great a blessing as this is the blessing of peace as every other good and perfect gift besides it comes from above it is such as is shoured down from Heaven and descends from the Father of lights as the Apostle James speaks in Jam. 1.17 It isnot a thing which grows out of our selves and our own hearts which incline rather to all that is opposite and contrary hereunto neither can man bestow it upon us but it is the gift of God alone He creates peace peace Isa 57.19 and John 14.27 Peace I leave with you my peace I give unto you not as the world giveth give I unto you says our blessed Saviour to his Disciples when he was taking his leave of them Secondly Here 's also denoted in this phrase the fulness of the blessing it shall be upon them so as to cover them and fill them and rest and abie in them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to rule and triumph in their hearts as we find that phrase used Col. 3.15 This was that which is here promised to all such as live like Christians they shall have peace in a large and plentiful measure confer'd on them This is matter of exceeding great comfort and encouragement to all the true servants of God and to those whose hearts are perfect with him In the world it falls out sometimes that the more exact any are in their lives the more trouble and opposition they meet with and those which are naught and mischievous will be sure to create difficulties to them Look by how much the more that any are careful to walk by this Rule the more spight and hatred shall befal them But here is that which may satisfie all such persons as a promise from truth it self that his peace and mercy shall be upon them yea and so much the more for that disturbance which they find anywhere else Mark the perfect and behold the upright for the end of that man is peace says David Psal 37.37 Let us therefore all make much of this this perfection and integrity we speak of in order hereunto and as we desire to have peaceable consciences so let us be careful still to have sincere consciences Let us walk by rule and this rule which we have here mentioned unto us This will bring a man peace at last when all the world must be left by him with all the comforts and pleasures which are in it Oh the sabbath and sweet tranquillity of spirit which a gracious heart that is careful first to know God in Christ and then to keep communion with him finds in it self How free from those distractions and annoyances which another person is incumbred withal How peaceable in life yea how comfortable in death it self Whereas on the other side for the wicked there is no peace unto them saith my God But they are like the raging sea casting forthmire and dirt as the Prophet speaks there in that place Isa 57.20 That 's the first Emphasis of this phrase Peace be upon them c. as it carries in it the notion of a Promise or Divine Intimation The second is the notion of a Prayer or Apostolical Benediction Let peace and mercy be upon them This we find frequently in the Epistles to those whom the Apostle writes to we have it in the beginning of this Gal. 13. Grace be to you and peace And here also he closes with it But here with a little more restriction to the particular occasion and the matter in hand which he treats of and that is walking by this rule The Apostle solemnly pronounces a blessing of peace upon them This is not lightly to be past over by us for as there 's weight in an Apostolical curse and an Anathema sent forth by him as we have sometimes shewen from another place in this Epistle so is there weight also in an Apostolical Benediction and a word of blessing proceeding from him as it does here to all circumspect Christians They are blest by the Apostle of Christ in the name of Christ and this blessing it shall inseparably cleave and stick unto them and they shall find and feel the sweetness and comfort of it and what is tender'd in the promise it is here also further sealed and confirm'd in this pronunciation whereby God in the mouth and pen of his servant does further ingage himself to make it good to all such persons as are vers'd in it Let the Pope and Papist spurt their curse but God blesses which is all in all and more to be regarded by them And this for the inlargement of it reaches not only to the times wherein the Apostle wrote this Epistle but to all times and ages whatsoever in following generations For which purpose we may here also by the way take notice of the expression in the future as it runs in the Original Text which is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not which do walk but which shall By which expression as I conceive there are two things pointed out unto us the one respecting the Duty and the other respecting the Blessing and the reward and recompence of it that which respects the Duty is perseverance and continuance in good walking as a necessary qualification that which respects the reward is the continuance of this Blessing to the performance in a succession of times First As respecting the Duty it is perseverance and continuance in this walking And here two things more First What ought to be And secondly What will be that which ought to be is this that those who have begun a good walk they ought still to proceed in it and to go on as they walk thus at present so they must do further for time to come For this reason it is exprest in the future not which do walk but which shall because those which do so still must Perseverance it is the duty of a Christian which he is call'd unto having began he is ingaged to continue This hint it was but very requisite and proper to the Galatians because they had been especially guilty in this particular they had begun in the spirit and ended in the slesh Gal. 3.3 They had run well but were now hindred or driven back so that they did not obey the truth Gal. 5.7 Now therefore for these such an intimation was but seasonable unto them and 't is so as well to all others besides It is that which God expects from us whosoever we are if we have once taken up the ways of Religion to prosecute them and to proceed in them with all stedfastness and constancy of mind and to keep close to this rule And the reason of it is this because we have all incouragement that may be so to do There is so much satisfaction in Godliness and the ways of Christianity and true Religion as that there are none whoever enter upon the but they
the second Adam namely Christ Grace is derived unto all those that partake of him by spiritual regeneration There are three manner of ways by which Christ may be said to derive Grace to those which are his First By the benefit of his Passion Secondly By the benefit of his Intercession and thirdly by the efficacy of his Operation And this he does only to those which are Believers First By the merit of his Death and suffering Christ having offered himself a sacrifice well-pleasing to God did meritoriously purchase to his Church the favour and grace of God and all such gracious qualifications as were suitable to such persons as should be saved Now those which deny Christ and his Doctrine they have no benefit at all from this purchase Christ has merited Grace for none which do finally stand out against him and refuse to be governed by him The blood of Christ Jesus cleanseth us from all sin 1 Joh. 1.7 Vs ◠who were they namely such as appears by the Context Who walk in the light as he is in the light and maintain fellowship with him c. Secondly By the benefit of his Intercession Christ does continually pray for those which are his that they may have competent Grace bestowed upon them I have prayed for thee that thy faith fail not says Christ to Simon Peter Luk. 22.32 Now those who do not by faith receive him they have not benefit neither by these prayers Christ distinguishes his Elect from others expresly in this particular Joh. 17.9 I pray for them I pray not for the world but for them c. Thirdly By the efficacy of his Operation Christ conveys Grace to his servants as an Head imparts life and motion to his Members and this he does by his Spirit not only working Grace in them at first but also strengthening and increasing it where it 's wrought Ephes 4.15 16. That ye may grow up unto him in all things which is the head even Christ from whom the whole body fitly join'd and compacted by that which every joint supplieth according tothe effectual working in the measure of every part maketh increase of the body to the edifying of it self in love There are daily and continually influences of Grace from Christ to Believers whereby he enables them both to the subduing of sin and doing of duty Hence we are said of his fulness to receive all of us grace for grace answerable to grace in him for kinds grace in us And hence is God said to have blest us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ Ephes 1.3 4. And this is done by the power of his Spirit working in us It 's called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ Phil. 1.19 Grace it is a fruit of the Spirit and the Spirit it is the Spirit of Christ and so sanctifying those alone which have this Spirit of Christ in them by vertue of their Vnion to him For if any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his Rom. 8.9 We must rightly understand this method and order and connexion which God has set for the conveying of saving Grace unto us We have not Grace from the Spirit immediately but from the Spirit in reference to Christ The Spirit first sanctifies his Humane nature and then sanctifies us so that what we have of the Spirit in the graces of it we have it still derivatively from him As the Ointment which was upon the head of Aaron it ran down to the skirts of his garment so the Grace which is upon the head of Christ it runs down to all his Members and to them alone There are common gifts from God as a Creator and Governour of the World which common persons partake of and such as are out of Christ upon the understanding of natural abilities wit and sagacity c. and upon the will of moral qualifications temperance and sobriety and the like but no sanctifying grace but from Christ no spirit of mortification as to lusts no quickning spirit as to spiritual duties Without me i.e. separated from me ye can do nothing Joh. 15.5 He that hath not Christ he hath not these as not having the spirit of Christ from whence these should come into him Look as there is no beam without a Sun from whence it should irradiate not River or stream without a spring from whence it should flow and take its original so neither is there any Grace without Christ who is the only beginner and finisher of Grace in us He that has not Christ he has not God in the influences of Grace and Sanctification he has not God in him by way of residence and habitation and as taking up abode in his soul Nor he has not God with him by way of assistance and co-operation as enabling him to walk in such ways as are pleasing to God and as are suitable to a Christian conversation And so as to the Point which we now speak of to wit of gracious and sanctifying qualification He has not indeed God at all Secondly As not to the influences of Grace so neither to the influences of comfort no true comfort or peace of Conscience but from God in Christ He is our peace both in the thing it self as also in the discovery an manifestation of it The spirit of comfort it is of his sending and comes from him Comfort divided from Christ it is not comfort but security it is not assurance but fancy it is not Consolation but presumption None can perswade the heart of Gods love and favour to it but he alone that has purchased and obtained Gos love and favour for it and this is Christ alone God hath sent the spirit of his son into eur hearts crying Abba Father And it is his spirit that beareth witness with our spirits that we are the children of God He that hath not Christ and his Spirit he hath not God to comfort him Thirdly As to matter of Salvation not God to save him There 's no salvation out of Christ Act. 4.12 Neither is there salvation in any other For there is none other name under Heaven given among men whereby we must be saved He that hath not the Son he hath not life i.e. eternal life 1 Joh. 5.12 But the wrath of God abides on him Joh. 3.36 Ye will not come unto me that ye might have life as who should say without me 't is not to be had in Joh. 5.40 This which we are now upon it follows from all which went before Forasmuch as out of Christ there 's no knowledg of God no access unto him no interest in him no grace from him It will necessarily ensue that he that has not Christ he has not God in point of salvation Because whosoever are saved they have all these several priviledges as antecendent belonging unto them they know God have acquaintance with him are reconciled unto him justified and sanctified by him And thus we
Now that which Christ submitted to for us was the worst and most grievous of any other Now the greater was the suffering by so much greater also was the love Thirdly In the full and perfect Application of this his death unto us It is said That he washed us in his own blood He did not sprinkle us only but bath us He did not only bestow some few drops of it upon us but he did drench us and souse us and immerse us over head and ears in it he did give us a plentiful share and interest in it And lastly There 's an Emphasis also in the word of propriety in that it is said His own blood The Priests under the old Law in the discharge and execution of their office they sprinkled the people with blood and did in a sense and after a sort wash them from their sins in it But that blood it was not their own but the blood of beasts yea but Christ he hath of himself purged us from our sins in his own blood as it is here intimated to us And this is a further inlargement of his love towards us The Use of all to our selves is to inlarge our hearts in all thankfulness and acknowledgment to Christ for his goodness which we should be very much quickened unto Oh it is that which we can never sufficiently prize or be affected withal and therefore we should be often and frequent in the thoughts and meditation of it He hath loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood Oh what an high favour was this and what could he have done more for us It was the highest expression of love that possibly might be And we should be exceedingly ravisnt with it It is a great piece of dulness and deadness in us when it is otherwise with us For it has the perfection of all love in it And we should make it a ground of Incouragement in the expectation of all things else from Christ which are requisite and necessary for us He that has not stuck at this great expression of love which is here mentioned in the Text will be sure not to stick at any thing which is inferiour to it and he that has given us the greater will not stick to give us the less And so the Apostle himself teaches us to reason Rom. 8.32 He that spared not his own Son but delivered him up for us all how shall he not with him also freely give us all things Again we may also carry it higher as to the expectation of higher things from him and as reason from the greater to the less so likewise from the less to the greater and in particular as to the expectation of Heaven and Glory to come If he has received us he will also actually save us as the Apostle reasons Rom. 5.10 For he that has done the one he will do the other likewise upon it He that hath loved us and washed us in his blood will also love us and set us in his throne and will fully perfect and accomplish the work of Salvation for us And so I have done also with the second General part of the Text which is the Description of Christ from the particular discovery of his Affection Who hath washed us c. The third and last is from the effect and result of it in these words And hath made us Kings and Priests unto God and his Father Wherein there 's a twofold Dignity which Believers do partake of from and with Christ the one is the Dignity of Kings and the other is the Dignity of Priests All true Believers they have a share in each of these Offices First In his Kingly Office all true Believers are Kings This is to be taken not in a Temporal sense but in a Spiritual and so the Scripture still expresses it Thus Luk. 12.32 Fear not little flock for it is your Fathers pleasure to give you the kingdom and Luk. 22.29 I appoint unto you a kingdom as my Father hath appointed unto me This it consists of two Parts which are belonging unto it the one is the state of Grace and the other the state of Glory First For the state of Grace All true Christians they are Kings in this particular namely so far forth as they have power over their spiritual Enemies and all those things which might hinder their salvation A true Believer he has power over his own lusts and the corruptions of his own heart in some kind of measure and degree and so in that respect is a King Take men that are slaves to their lusts and they are the greatest slaves and vassals that are But now a Christian he is free from this slavery through the Grace of Christ which is communicated to him And so as he has power over Sin so in some measure over Satan also the King of the bottomless pit as he is call'd the Prince of the world A good Christian by the help of Christ's Spirit hath some power over him also and at last shall be inabled to trample him under his feet in Rom. 16.20 And then for the World also A good Christian he has power over this also so far forth as all things are order'd and disposed to his good All things are yours c. There 's no Providence whatsoever but he is still getting good out of it if it be prosperity it makes him more cheerful in God's service and if it be adversity it draws him so much the nearer to God All things work together for good to them that love God whether in themselves they be good or evil Take even Death it self which is sometimes called the King of Terrours A true Believer through the Grace and help of Christ is in a sort a King over this as having the sting of it taken out of it to him and of an enemy made a friend unto him as being the passage to Glory Thus is he a King in reference to the state of Grace And then in reference to the state of Glory also so far forth as he is an heir of Heaven and shall reign with Christ for ever and ever Thus he is a King in regard of right and title even here in this life though he be not in actual possession Therefore we should learn so to carry and demean our selves as suitable to this condition we should abhor to conform to the world and the lusts and vanities thereof as considering to what we are appointed we should endeavour to have a frame of spirit suitable to such a noble estate as this is wherein we are And this for the first piece of Dignity which is here mentioned and that is of Kings The second Dignity is of Priests And hath made us Priests c. These were another sort of persons who in times past were anointed and Christians are spiritually thus also in sundry respects First In regard of the Prayers which are continually put up by them both for themselves and others
Thus 1 Pet. 2.5 Ye are an holy Priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ Every good Christian he hath great interest in Heaven and can very much prevail with God through Christ in his approaches to the Throne of Grace And we have frequent instances and examples of it both in Scripture and in daily experience Secondly As to the keeping of themselves from the pollutions and defilements of the world The Priests they were prohibited the touching of those things which were unclean and so are Christians careful to keep themselves unspotted of the world Thirdly As to the teaching and instructing of others in the Communion of Saints The Priests lips should preserve knowledg Mal. 2.7 And so should every Christian also in his way and within his compass Parents and Masters of Families should be thus far Priests in them as with Abraham to teach their children and their housholds after them Gen. 18.19 c. Fourthly As to the offering up of themselves to God they must be Priests in this respect also The Priests they were used and imployed in the killing of beasts so should Christians be in slaying of their lusts and unruly affections And then the High-Priest especially he entered into the Sanctum Sanctorum so should every Christian have his heart always towards the Holy of Holies c. Lastly The Priests they still blest the people so would the mouths of Christians do others with whom they converse 1 Pet. 3.9 not railing but contrarily blessing c. The sum of all comes to this namely to raise the esteem and opinion of Gods people in the world and from hence to set an high price and valuation upon them The world it commonly looks upon the Saints and Servants of God as a base and contemptible generation but see here what names and titles the Spirit of God in Scripture puts upon them namely of Kings and Priests which have the greatest Dignity and Excellency in them of any other whatsoever These they are so to God and the Father howsoever they be to any other that is not only to his service but likewise to his Approbation The Father is here named as the first in order and fountain of the Godhead though the whole Trinity be included and intended in it So much for that And then there is this Use also of it in the close of the verse To him be Glory for ever and ever c. And so I have done also with the third and last Description of Christ in the execution of his Offices And hath made us Kings and Priests to God and his Father Now to him be Glory and Dominion for ever and ever Amen SERMON XLVIII Revel 22.17 And the Spirit and the Bride say Come This Text which I have now read unto you is a further improvement of that Scripture which was handled by us the last day and does contain somewhat in it as additional and accumulative thereunto For there we had propounded to us but only the hope and expectation of Christians as those which looked for the Lord Jesus Christ to come from Heaven out of that place of the Apostle Paul to the Philippians Chap. 3. ver 20. And here we have exhibited to us their desire and earnest importunity so that he comes not before he is welcome and he is not more certainly expected than he is gladly and joyfully entertained For the Spirit and the Bride say Come That is the Church by the secret suggestion and instigation of the Holy Ghost towards her does invite him and call for him and hasten him towards his second Appearing This is the scope and drift of the Text. IN the Text it self there are two General Parts considerable First The Persons mentioned Secondly The action which is attributed unto these Persons The Persons mentioned they are the Spirit and the Bride The action which is attributed to these Persons that is a calling after Christ they say to him Come We begin with the former viz. the Persons mentioned The Spirit and the Bride By the Spirit we are here to understand the Holy Ghost the Spirit of God which is called the Spirit by way of Excellency the third Person in the blessed Trinity And by the Bride we are to understand either the Church of God in general or every faithful and believing soul which is a member of Christ in particular These are the Persons here that speak And we must take them in a mutual reference and connexion of one with another The Spirit speaks in the Bride and the Bride speaks from and by the Spirit And so they both speak together and have the same action ascribed unto them First Here 's mention made of the Spirit and that as considerable of us under a twofold notion First Of his Presence and secondly of his Influence Of his Presence as join'd with the Bride of his Influence as assistant unto her and helping and enabling of her First Here 's the Spirits presence the Spirit and the Bride they are joined both together to signifie and intimate unto us that special residence which the Holy Ghost hath in all true Believers where-ever there is the Bride there 's the Spirit that is where-ever there is any true Christian there 's the Holy Ghost abiding in him And so the Scripture sets it in sundry places of it as 1 Cor. 3.16 Know ye not that ye are the Temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you And so Chap. 6. v. 19. Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you So again Ephes 2.22 In whom ye also are built together for an habitation of God through the Spirit The Spirit of God resides both in the whole Church at large as also in every particular Believer as the soul is in the whole Body and also in every particular member Therefore we may accordingly know whether we are espoused to Christ or no upon this account and consideration If any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his Rom. 8.9 Because where ever there is the Spouse there 's the Spirit It holds both as a discovery of Churches and as a discovery of Persons As a discovery of Churches to distinguish the true from the false and as a discovery of persons to distinguish the sound from the Hypocritical Again as it is distinguishing so it is also comforting It is a great satisfaction to the Church in the present withdrawing and absentation of Christ from her that his Spirit is yet with her that he does not leave her altogether destitute in an orphan-like or fatherless condition as himself hath sometime exprest it Joh. 14.18 but that he does provide for the supply of her I will pray the Father and he shall give you another Comforter that he may abide with you for ever even the Spirit of Truth whom the world cannot receive as it is also there in that Chapter And again Chap. 16.
v. 7. If I depart I will send him unto you The Holy Ghost is the Proxy of Christ that serves to bear his Bride company in the absence of Christ himself from her And he does carefully perform this office of respect unto her It was he that made her next to God Here 's the Spirit and the Bride both together And that 's the first particular in which he is here considerable of us to wit in the notion of his Presence or Personal Concomitancy The second is in the notion of Influence or operative concomitancy As it is the Spirit join'd with the Bride so it is the Spirit that is assistant unto her and what she does she does by his helping and enabling of her This is another thing here considerable of us it is the Spirit and Bride that say Come that is which make this particular request for the hastening of Christ second appearance And so there is this in general observable from it That the prayers of Gods people they are the workings of the Holy Ghost himself in them The voice of the Spouse it is all one with the voice of the Spirit they are not two voices but one and accordingly they are here in the Text join'd in one and put in a copulative expression It it not said the Spirit says come by himself and the Bride says come by her self No but the Spirit and the Bride say come both together as having the speech or action of the one transfer'd to the other We are the subjects of those actions which God himself works in us Certum est nos velle sed Deus facit ut velimus Certum est nos facere sed Deus facit ut faciamus says Austin We will but God makes us to will we do but God makes us to do And so we pray but the Spirit enables us to do so the spirit helps our infirmities Therefore we read of praying in the spirit Ephes 6.18 and of praying in the Holy Ghost Jude 20. And of the spirit of Adoption whereby we cry Abba Father in Rom. 8.15 and Heb. 4.6 c. this is called the intercession of the spirit In Rom. 8.26 27. The spirit helpeth our infirmities for we know not what to pray for as we ought but the spirit it self maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered And he that searcheth the heart knoweth what is the mind of the spirit because he maketh intercession for the Saints according to the will of God c. There are two things which the Holy Ghost does for us to this purpose the one is the suggesting of the matter of our petitions by teaching us what to ask and to beg of God in prayer And the other the stirring up of holy desires and affections in us and giving us an holy boldness and confidence at the Throne of Grace and perswading us of our acceptance with God in the name of Christ He makes intercession for us by making intercession in us and helping us to make intercession The Consideration of this Point makes much for the comfort of Believers in regard of the success of their Prayers Therefore they are sure to be granted at one time or other because they are the workings and operations of the Holy Ghost himself in them whereby they are also distinguish't from the Petitions of other persons As for natural and carnal men they may sometimes cry to God out of the Dictates and suggestions of Nature or out of the Principles of custom and formality but the Holy Ghost has little influence upon them in such Applications and accordingly they cannot expect so confidently to be heard in them or to find any such benefit by them but the Prayers of the faithful being wrought in them by the Holy Ghost that does prompt them and put them upon them and help them and assist them in them they are therefore sure accordingly to have an efficacy and successfulness with them because God will be sure to hear the voice of his own Spirit and it is not so much they that speak as his Spirit that speaketh in them Where Christians pray as they should do and observe the right rules of Prayer which the Scripture does prescribe unto them their Prayers shall be followed with a blessing and good effect of them This is the confidence says the Apostle that we have in him that if we ask any thing according to his will he heareth us and if we know that he heareth us whatsoever we ask we know that we have the petitions that we have desired of him in 1 Joh. 5.14 15. From hence also we learn to take heed of slighting such things as these are and of diminishing from them we should not think them to be of no value and to little purpose as some are ready to do But to set a price and valuation upon them there is more in the hearty prayer of the poorest and meanest Christian in the Church than the world is commonly aware of as being such as has very great Prevalence with God himself to whom it is tender'd But so much of the first of those persons which is here mentioned in the Text and that is the spirit considered both under the notion of his Presence as joyned with the Bride as also under the notion of his influence as being assistant unto her The second person is the Bride her self as she is here exprest and exhibited unto us By this title as I said we are to understand either the whole Church of Christ in General or every distinct Believer and Member of Christ in particular And according to either Consideration or Application of it it hath a twofold notion with it either of Eminency or of Diminution This word Bride as it lies before us in the Text is both a word of Excellency and a word of Extenuation It is a word of Excellency as it stands in opposition to Adultery and strange affection It is the Bride not the Whore It is a word of Extenuation as it stands in a distinction from Matrimony and compleat marriage It is the Bride not the Wife First I say The Church is here call'd the Bride as it is a title of Excellency and stands in opposition to adultery and strange affection It is the Bride not the Whore The false Church is an Harlot and a filthy and unclean adulteress it is the Whore of Babylon as she is called here in this Book of the Revelation the Mother of fornication c. And such an one as she is she never cares for the coming of Christ but rather desires he should stay away still and is glad of his staying as an Harlot is for the absence of her Husband The good man is not at home he is gone a long journey as she there expresses it Prov. 7.19 But the Bride which is the true Church as chaste and pure Virgin she longs for the coming of her beloved and calls after him as it is here declared
tremble and quake at this coming and at the thoughts of it as malefactors at the coming of the Judg They desire that Christ would not come and where he gives any symptoms of it they cry out with the unclean spirit in the Gospel What have we to do with thee thou Son of God art thou come to torment us before our time A guilty and defiled conscience it abhors the coming of Christ and withdraws from it if it were possible it would altogether shun it and never have it to come to pass and when it does come it is matter of the greatest terror and astonishment to it that can be Therefore it is said of such persons at such a time That they shall hide themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains and shall say unto the mountains and rocks Fall upon us and hide us from the face of him that sitteth upon the throne and from the wrath of the lamb for the great day of his wrath is come and who shall be able to stand Rev. 6.15 16 17. The ungodly shall not stand in judgment Psal 1.5 Not stand that is not stand upright but fall down before it and accordingly shall do all they can to avoid it Whereas on the other side the Children of God shall be well-pleased with it and hearty and couragious in it and very freely and cheerfully entertain it When he shall appear they shall have confidence and not be ashamed before him at his coming 1 Joh. 2.28 Indeed there are some cases and circumstances and times wherein the Spouse of Christ her self may not be always in such a present frame and disposition of spirit as to utter this speech here before us and to say Come even in this sense which we now speak of even the servants of God themselves may at least for such a particular season have an indisposedness upon them hereunto As namely when they have not finished their work or got their businesses ready about them but yet they have always a general and habitual preparation for it in them As a steward that is for the main faithful yet he may not always have his accounts made up and in that regard may not yet wish for the Audit And a Spouse that has a good affection for her Beloved yet may not presently have all her Ornaments upon her and in that Consideration may sometimes wish for the delay of his coming This is tha which is here chiefly considerable that God's Children they do still labour to frame themselves to an entertainment of Christ at his coming And that 's the first notion of this Expression as it may be taken for a word of simple acceptance or entertainment Come that is thou mayst come if thou so pleasest and shalt be welcom to me The second is as it may be taken as a word of desire or invitation Come that is I pray come it is my earnest suit and request that thou would'st come And here now we have a further inlargement and improvement of Grace in a Christian which is not only to be content with Christs coming and submitting unto it but also to be desirous of it and longing after it This is the temper and disposition of a good and of a gracious heart to pant and breathe and thirst for the second coming of Christ and not to be satisfied in it self till it does come The Spirit and the Bride say Come that is they say it importunately and earnestly with a great deal of affection This desire whereof we now speak it is laid and founded in sundry Considerations which do make for it As first in reference to the world it self in the present frame and constitution of it The world is at present in that condition as that the coming of Christ if very desirable in that regard And there are two particulars especially which do make up this unto us First In point of sin and wickedness And secondly in point of misery and affliction Both these two taken together do cast a disparagement upon the world and do therefore make Christians to desire the destruction of it First As it is a wicked and sinful world The world taken at the best was never over-good since it first began to be bad even presently upon the Creation of it Sin made an entrance upon it and got possession of it and not long after the whole earth had soon corrupted it self as the Scripture tells us but now as it 's grown any thing older and of longer standing so its sinfulness is so much the more improved and it grows worse every day than other The very times themselves we live in are a sufficient demonstration of it to us and we find it so by sad experience as being such wherein iniquity abounds more than ever and wicked men grow worse and worse as the Apostle speaks In these latter days and times of the world more especially as the spirit has foretold it there are the greatest incursions of wickedness of any other and that in all the kinds and degrees of it Now this is that which makes a gracious heart so to long for this second coming of Christ that so thereby he may put a period to these days of sin that God may be no longer dishonoured his Name may be no longer blasphemed his Laws may be no longer transgressed his Ordinances may be no longer despised his Spirit may be no longer grieved A good Christian has such an enmity and antipathy against sin as that he cannot but be very desirous of that which is destructive of it as the coming of Christ is not his first only but his second For this end will the Son of God be manifest that he may destroy the works of the Devil And for this end also do the Children of God so much desire the manifestation of him that so by this means sin may be destroyed and have a period and end put unto it And that both in others and also in themselves The Children of God they are both scandalized and offended at others abominations and likewise they are burdened and overprest with their own corruption and in each respect do desire that Christ would come for the remedying of either that their righteous souls with Lot's may be no longer vexed with the Conversation of the wicked and that themselves also with Paul may be delivered from the body of death that is the body of sin as we shall hear more anon in the following Explication But secondly As there is the world in the sinfulness and wickedness of it so there is the world also in the misery and afflictiveness of it which does make for this desire in them also that exceeding vanity which is upon the creature and those manifold calamities which do attend upon humane Life This is another thing here considerable in the world which does put the Church upon this Prayer for Christs coming that as God has promised he may wipe away all tears from
their brethren that should be killed as they were should be fulfilled There is a ripeness and maturity of sin which calls for the execution of judgment till which time judgment is delayed and put off and for a season procrastinated and then he that shall come will come and will not tarry Lastly This desire of the Church to Christ's coming and hastning of it it hath a respect to Christ himself who in a manneris hereby also perfected for the Church in the fulness of its Members is the fulness also of Christ and so it is called in Ephes 1.23 The fulness of him that filleth all in all We must distinguish of Christ in his person and Christ in his office If we look upon Christ as God and as the second person in the Trinity so he is absolute and compleat in himself and capable of no addition or augmentation but if we look upon Christ as he is God-man the Mediator and Head of the Church so he is so far forth perfected as the Church it self is perfected and compleated in the number of Members And as himself also has finished and compleated all the works which do belong to his Mediatorship which is coming in Glory This is the only remainder of what 's behind and lest yet undone as to the full work of our Redemption and therefore does the Church very properly call for it and put him in mind of it out of her respect unto him This if not so to be taken as if Christ himself would not come otherwise for that he would though she should be silent and never call for him nor yet if she could properly hasten it or speed it before its time for that she cannot neither God has appointed a day wherein he will judg the world in righteousness by the man whom he hath ordained as the Apostle tells us Act. 17.31 As he has appointed the man namely Christ so he has also appointed the day which we cannot name nor it does not belong unto us It is not for us to know the times and seasons which the Father hath put in his own power Act. 1.7 But the Church prays for his coming as a testimony of her affection to him and as desiring thereby to put a respect upon him because in coming his Glory and Majesty shall be so much the more revealed and discovered And that 's the last account which may be here given of this Prayer and Petition When the Spirit and the Bride say Come namely out of respect to Christ The Vse of all to our selves serves to teach us to labout for such a frame of spirit as this is whereby we may in truth and sincerity come up to this requess and desire so as to pray and to pray heartily for the second coming of Christ and the appurtenances of it It is a request which is so much the more considerable as it is such as we are taught to make by Christ himself in that Prayer which he hath left unto us whereof one branch is this Thy Kingdom come As the Holy Ghost suggests it so Christ himself also commands it and requires it of us and accordingly we should all indeavour that it may be practised by us We should labor for the Considerations above-mentioned to say Come Lord Jesus come quickly as it follows afterwards in this Chapter Where when Christ promises it the Church presently apprehends it and returns upon him with desires answerable and suitable to so gracious an intimation For this purpose let us especially endeavour to have the Spirit of God Himself in us and to be filled with that For observe how it is said here in the Text The Spirit and the Bride say Come Nature that does not say it but rather reluctates against it and puts it off no but it is the Spirit that says it and we our selves say it to purpose so far forth as we are spiritual and act upon spiritual Grounds and Principles in the desires of it There are some kind of people who now and then in a discontent and when any thing crosses them then it may be they could wish for an end of the world and of their own lives with it But that may be perhaps from the flesh and not from the spirit and so to be suspected no but then it is so as should be when it proceeds from a work of the Holy Ghost and Spirit himself in us Now there are three ways especially whereby the Spirit of God does usually work such a desire as this in us and makes us in Truth and Reality to desire Christs second Coming First By discovering to us the vanity of all these things here below What is the reason that many people are so unwilling to think of another world It is because they think there is no other but this but place their happiness and contentment here in these poor outward things which if their hearts were taken off from it would be otherwise with them Now those whom God has a delight in he does by his Spirit convince them of the vanity and Transitoriness of this world Secondly By purging our consciences from any thing which may be burdensom to them and putting us upon duty and that work which is required of us in our present opportunities When Christians shall have this lye upon their spirits that either they have been sinful or unfruitful they cannot so easily wish for Christs coming either guilt or their work yet unfinished they are great pull-backs and retarders in this particular Now therefore does the Holy Ghost take order with them to both of these purposes by not suffering his servants to lye under the power of any known sin nor yet wilfully to omit and neglect any known Duty but to be sincere and fruitful both to such Christians as are so Christs coming will be the more acceptable to them Thirdly By manifesting unto them the Excellency which is in Christ himself and the blessed and glorious condition of God's People in another world together with their own interest and concernment in it When Christ had declared before that he was the bright and moring-star then the Spirit and the Bride say Come it is ignorance of Christ that makes men no more to breathe after him nor to be desirous of him Therefore the Spirit of God may rouse those desires in us he presents these Excellencies to us and gives us some glimpses and anticipations of that glorious condition which he has provided for us And then also which belongs hereunto vouchsafes some kind of assurance of our interest in this condition and that it belongs to us for our particular whereby the more to quicken our desires Excellency is nothing without propriety it is the Spouse of Christ alone which can with joy desire Christs coming When therefore the soul is convinced that it is so with it self that it is contracted and espoused to Christ and owned by him then the Spirit an the Bride say Come When we
All things disparaged in comparison of the one thing necessary 51 58 59 To chuse the one thing necessary an argument of four things 55 Natural ability See free-will and free-grace What it may what it cannot do 155 Pelaginas confuted 166 Natural condition A miserable condition 159 160 O Ordinances Touching those who are without Gospel-ordinances 9 Whence their efficacy arises 31 P Pharisee What their righteousness was 1 Touching Pharisaical righteousness See Rightousness Prodigies and signs 266 Punishments Degrees of punishments 4 Peace What peace Christs death obtains 275 What it implies 406 Patience Of God 29 Why God bears long Ibid Pride How it discovers it self 39 430 Proveing How taken 385 Prayer Satan sometimes prays 65 Comfort when we cannot pray See Comfort VVhy Christ prayed although he could do all things without it 72 Incouragement to it 446 Papist And Jew wherein a like 266 Transubstantiation 267 269 Against their Tradition 339 Perseverance True Christians shall persevere 76 87 369 See Grace Persevere in two things 103 Helps to it Ibid VVhence the opinion of falling away arises 369 Motives to it 408 Providence Our ignorance touching Providence twofold 111 The intricacies of Providence and the reason thereof 112 Not for us to foretell its future events 113 VVhat in Providence God will at last make manifest 114 The properties of Gods Providence Ibid. VVhen God will vindicate his Providence 115 Prophesie See Enthusiasts Not for its to foretell future events of Providence 174 213 Imagainary Revelations censured 337 Opposers of Christs prophetical office 436 Perswading How taken 305 Preaching How men come to count it foolishness 261 VVhat it is 261 337 VVhence its efficacy arises 261 VVhy it profits not without faith 263 Directions touching it 270 271 298 350 274 278 437 382 301 VVhat it is to preach Christ crucified 276 VVhence it becomes unprofitable 263 279 280 Parents Duty to their Children 266 R Pighteousness OF Scribeds and Pharisees what 12 Defectiveness of the righteousness of Scribes and Pharisees 3 10 The Principles of Pharisaical righteousness 3 VVhy Pharisaical righteousness cannot bring to Heaven Ibid. Pharisaical righteousness in a sense worse than notorious sins 4 Civil righteousness commended 5 The righteousness exceeding that of Scribes and Pharisees Ibid. Moral righteousness not meritorious of saving-grave 11 Reproof How to be administred 41 46 The best of Christians ought to be reproved 41 Cautions to be observed in reproving a good man 42 Riches Their vanity 25 Resurrection VVhy Christ is so called 144 Religion The one thing necessary 47 Motives to diligence in it See Diligence VVhat required unto being acceptably religous 56 VVhence staggering in it arises Ibid. Religion justified 59 47 91 VVhat in it chiefly to be minded 296 Relations VVhence discord between nearest relations especially arises 53 Comfort under the loss of them 132 450 Reason The impotency of humane reason 90 91 112 173 254 255 259 269 How it discovers God 133 A check to the Contemners of it 269 Rehearsed In Scripture of the same words what it implies 341 Repentance How the goodness of God leads unto it how not 353 Reward Touching it 423 S Scribes Their office 1 Stumling-block 281 Satan Why he most tempts the godly and those especially most godly 62 Why most of all be iempts Ministers 64 His winnowings what 67 Sincerity A double effect of it 101 Sinner In what respects a fool 19 His danger and misery in this life 24 426 His ignorance 90 Incouragement ot prosligate sinners to repent 108 His impotency 163 Different sinners have their different corruptions whence it is 265 Why God bestows many good things on them and bears long with them 347 How without God in the world 426 Spirit Of God why compared to wind 85 How to get its supplies 168 What it is to walk in it See Walk How it witnesseth the Truth of Scripture 435 Scepticism The danger of it 266 Scandal VVhat it is implied 281 Lords-Supper What eating and drinking damnation signifies 282 Sin An umprofitable thing in what respects 356 Whence men come to be ashamed of it 359 Its aggravations 422 Its heinous nature discovered 442 How men sin against the blood of Christ 443 Speaking A threefold speaking 411 Security The danger of it 416 417 Salvation A Christians certainty of it 433 In what sense it 's said a Child of God cannot sin 325 T Thoughts Vanity of them 18 The evil of distraction in them 45 50 Causes of distraction in them 45 52 Remedies against their distraction 45 52 Taking freely what it imports 458 Temptations Why Satan must tempts the godly and those especially most godly 62 Why he most of all tempts Ministers 64 Support under Temptation 65 72 75 79 87 Walk against them 66 74 Why God suffers his to fall into them 73 How faith helps under them 75 Whence Christians come to recover out of them 78 The evil that comes by them 80 The good that comes by them 62 Time What knowledg of the times concerns us what not 113 130 171 What times it 's not fur us to know 169 Terrors Of the Lord what 303 Thirst spiritual what it implies 455 The excellency of spiritual thirst 456 Teason Gun-powder Treason 317 Truth How taken in Scripture 328 Toleration Against universal toleration 337 Tradition When equalized with Scripture condenned 339 V Vanity OF Thoughts See Thoughts Unity Among Christians 408 409 Bounded 409 Unbelief The hainousness of it 436 Voice of Christ in the Ministry the voice of the spirit in the conscience and the voice of the spirit in the Spouse to be heard 453 454 W Way Incourage any coming on in the Ways of God why 14 Word Ingemindation of words its end 41 60 World Take heed of worldly-mindedness See Mind Why continued 106 How taken in Scripture 152 Watch. Against temptation why 66 67 Motives to it 418 Work How Christ helps to the performance of a good work 164 Good works in what respects disparaged 156 Wisdom Humance in what respects disparaged 156 Walk To walk in the spirit what 372 373 What it implies 374 400 How walking in it secures against sin 380 Touching a Christians rule to walk by 403 404 Water of life what understood by it 456 What understood by Whosoever will let him take of the water of life Y Youth Motives to early Godliness 52 Good education a great blessing 266 Z Zeal How Christians come to decay in it 421 FINIS