thou recover me and make me to live Behold for Peace I had great Bitterness but thou hast in love to my Soul delivered it from the Pit of corruption for thou hast cast all my Sins behind thy back Thus he creates the fruit of the lips Peace Peace to him that is afar off and to him that is near and heals them Isa 57.19 Men sin and then God scourgeth they cry and God sends his Messenger to teach them they are humbled for Sin and fly to the Bloud of Christ for Peace Believing in him they obtain Reconciliation being reconciled the Spirit of Christ as the Comforter is given them to make known the things that are freely given by God hence comes Joy in believing and Hope of the Inheritance of life by which they are supported which I was to demonstrate APPLICATION And now this belongs to you that so many of you as have by proof found the truth of this may be thankfull so many as do or shall need these directions may wisely make use of them You are all of you yet in the Body and this Body you bear about you is a Body of Sin and Death and perhaps you have been affected as S. Paul was when he cried out O wretched man that I am who shall deliver men from the Body of this death Rom. 7.24 If you have not found it already you may expect such a sense of your Infirmities as may perhaps make you tremble and quake bemoan God's Absence from you and from the words of your Roaring you may find Wounds in your Spirit and Breach in your Bones Conscience of Sin sense of God's Rod on your backs may make you cry out in the bitterness of your Soul for Ease and Help If any of you have already found your selves in this Case you are able to tell how weak your Spirit hath been either to avoid or bear the Blows of God's Hand Onely they are happy in such a case who can truly say I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Sure all others are Physicians of no value It is in vain to imagine any solid Comfort to your Spirit by a Pope's Pardon or a Priest's Absolution or any other Remedy which either your own Mind or others Wit can minister to you for your Ease or Recovery It is onely the Balm of the Gospell the Physician of Heaven that can make a perfect Cure Without these some Mountebanks may make a palliated Cure but the Sore will break out again Oh then be sure to take home with you this Receipt write upon it Probatum est No Medicine like God's Favour obtained by sound Humiliation true Repentance unfeigned Faith in the Bloud of Christ to heal your Plagues whether from God's Judgments or your own Fears Keep this as the onely Plague-water make use of it toties quoties as oft as you find need in life and death And when you have found Refreshing in your Spirits by it forget not to lift up your eyes to the Father of Spirits both by acknowledgment of what Support you have had and by seeking such farther Comfort from him as you may need I shall dismiss you with S. Paul's prayer 2 Thes 2.16 17. Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God even our Father which hath loved us and hath given us everlasting Consolation and good Hope through Grace comfort your hearts and stablish you in every good word and work To whom with the Blessed Spirit be ascribed c. Amen LAVS DEO PIETY THE DESIGN of PARDON The Tenth SERMON PSALM cxxx 4. But there is Mercy or Forgiveness with thee that thou maist be feared THIS Psalm is one of the Fifteen which are intituled Songs of Degrees For what reason they are so called is variously conjectured but not certainly determined It is also one of the Seven termed Penitentiall Psalms The matter of it is Supplication with a declaration of the Psalmist's Resolution or Practice v. 5 6. and an Exhortation to wait and hope in God as he did with assurance of God's Graciousness and Mercifull intention to Israel vers 7 8. The Supplication expresseth the state he was in De profundis Out of the Depths that is deep Mire or Waters by which are signified great Calamities Psal 69.2 14 15. such as those are in that are put into a Dungeon as Jeremiah was Jer. 38.6 or that are cast into a deep River Sea or Lake in which they are like to be overwhelmed It notes some great Affliction whether inward or outward private or publick is not certain though the words in vers 3 4. seem to intimate it to have been inward out of the sense of Sin and terrour of Soul by reason of it In this condition he saith he called or cried to God and his Cry was 1. In generall for Audience Lord hear my voice let thine ears be attentive to the voice of my Supplications vers 2. 2. With Confession of his Guiltiness vers 3. If thou Lord shouldst mark Iniquities 3. With imploring and confident application of Forgiveness in my Text But there is Mercy or Forgiveness with thee that thou maist be feared Whether the word be read Mercy or Forgiveness it is not much material saving that this latter is more agreeable to the words and to the Coherence with vers 3. and better expresseth the particular Mercy meant here The Greek hath it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with thee is Propitiation or Appeasing which is either the same with Forgiveness or connexed with it Nor is it of any moment whether we reade For or But save that this latter is more apposite to the matter And it is all to one purpose whether we reade with thee or from thee the Hebrew particle signifying both save that this latter is more expressive of the sense And the meaning is the same with that in Daniel 9.9 To the Lord our God belong Mercies and Forgiveness though we have rebelled against him The latter part of the verse is otherwise read by the Greek and Vulgar Latin upon mistakes which Learned men in their Annotations take notice of Doctour Hammond on this place But the reading according to the Originall is for thy fear which is all one with our Translation that thou maist be feared that is reverenced worshipped and obeyed which are usually comprehended under the Fear of God The Truths included in this passage are 1. That there is Forgiveness with or from God 2. That this Forgiveness engageth or encourageth men to fear him Of these in their order I. OBSERVATION That there is Forgiveness with or from God That God is a pardoning God is the Assertion of God himself in that Proclamation in which he told Moses he would make all his Goodness to pass before him which was thus delivered Exod. 34.6 7. The Lord the Lord God mercifull and gracious long-suffering and abundant in Goodness and Truth keeping Mercy for thousands forgiving Iniquity Transgression and Sin Conformable whereunto in that Prayer of Nehemiah 9.17
necessary and are always made by those who are wise-hearted in all Generations for the very best of Men or People can never acquit themselves from being guilty of such Iniquities as might justly expose them to greater Wrath then they feel There is not a Just man upon earth that doeth good and sinneth not saith Solomon Eccles. 7.20 Who can say I have made my Heart clean I am pure from my Sin Prov. 20.9 Holy Job of whom God testifieth that he was his Servant none like him in the Earth a perfect and an upright man one that feared God and eschewed Evil Job 1.8 though he still avouched his Integrity yet when he is to speak of his Afflictions as they come from God he is crest-fallen le ts down his Plumes speaks in such forms as these How should a man be just with God If he will contend with him he cannot answer him one of a thousand If I justisie my self mine own mouth shall condemn me if I say I am perfect it shall also prove me perverse If I wash my self with Snow-water and make my hands never so clean Yet shalt thou plunge me in the ditch and mine own cloaths shall abhor me Job 9.2 3 20 30 31. He makes no such plea for himself as the proud Pharisee that trusted in himself that he was Righteous and despised others nor doth he out of meer Modesty speak thus of himself but out of the sense of the verity thereof he confesseth concerning all the Sons of Adam Job 14.4 Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean not one The Septuagint reads vers 5. No though his life be but one day upon earth and after them the Ancients Though he be but Infans unius diei an Infant of one day We reade of Hezekiah Isa 38.3 that he deprecated the Sentence of his Death in these words Remember now O Lord I beseech thee how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect Heart and have done that which is good in thy sight Yet when the Sentence was reversed he doth not ascribe it to his own desert but vers 17. he thus speaks to God Thou hast in love to my Soul delivered it from the Pit of corruption for thou hast cast all my Sins behind thy back He doth not like a proud Pharisee impute his Recovery to his own Righteousness nor like some boasting Frier brag of his own Merits or Works of Supererogation Such language of Self-justitiaries such Conceits of men puffed up with arrogant Self-esteem were far from him He speaks like an humble Penitent not like a vain Glorioso He assigns as the cause of his Recovery not his own Merit but God's pardoning Mercy Nor can any People justly reckon their own Innocency as the cause of God's sparing them but must if they will speak truth acknowledge they have deserved to be consumed Though David when the Pestilence was upon Israel said Lo I have sinned and I have done wickedly but these Sheep what have they done 2 Sam. 24.17 yet that there were Iniquities in the People which occasioned David's Sin is plain from vers 1. where it is said that the Anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel The Churches of Christ in the Primitive times were the purest yet S. Paul 2 Cor. 12.20 21. saith he feared lest when he came to Corinth he should not find them such as he would and that he should be found unto them such as they would not lest there be Debates Envyings Wraths Strifes Backbitings Whisperings Swellings Tumults lest when he came again his God would humble him among them and that he should bewail many which had sinned already and had not repented of the Vncleanness which they had committed In Christ's Survey of the Seven Golden Candlesticks the Seven Churches of Asia though golden or pure by his Acceptance yet he finds much drossy stuff their Light but dim and almost wasted and ready to go out such Imperfections such Errours such Decays such Practices of evil savour as were enough to move him to extinguish their Light quite and to remove the Candlesticks except they repented It is by reason of man's deceitfull Heart that God finds even in the best Men and Churches sufficient matter against them to consume them which yet he permits by his own just Decree and wise Counsel that he may hide Pride from man and none might glory in himself but that his Mercies might the better be discerned Which leads us to the III. OBSERVATION That there are Mercies and Compassions in God towards his People It is true Mercy and Compassion as they are in Man are Perturbations which do disquiet them Compassion in them is a dolorous Passion arising from some appearing Evil that is destructive or otherwise grievous which happens to a man undeservedly And it is occasioned by a sense of the common Condition of men and a possibility of the like Accident befalling themselves as Aristotle describes it in the Second Book of his Rhetorick But in God who is without Body Parts or Passions as the First Article of the Church of England speaks there is no such Perturbation no afflicting Affection But Compassion in him is a sweet calm and gracious Inclination of his Will whereby he hath regard to the Defects and Miseries of his Creature This Attribute is asserted by himself in that most majestick Proclamation of his when he shewed his Glory and made all his Goodness to pass before Moses Exod. 33.18 19. descended in a Cloud passed by him and proclaimed the Name of the Lord The Lord the Lord God Mereifull and Gracious Long-suffering and abundant in Goodness and Truth Exod. 34.5 6. The same hath been by many of the Holy Writers attested it being the great engaging Property of God whereby all his Creatures chiefly his Elect are eternally obliged to be his Thus he is styled by the Psalmist Psal 116.5 Gracious is the Lord and Righteous yea our God is Mercifull by S. James 5.11 a God very pitifull and of tender Mercies or of much Bowels of Compassion by S. Paul the Father of mercies and the God of all Consolation 2 Cor. 1.3 rich in Mercy Eph. 2.4 And therefore Mercy is most truly ascribed to him so that as Christ said There is none Good but one that is God Mark 10.18 so we may say There is none Mercifull or compassionate but one that is God understanding it of the most intensive Degree quoad Affectum in respect of the disposition of his Will to help and of the most extensive Latitude quoad Effectum in respect of the Effect and working of it for so it is universall Psal 145.9 The Lord is good to All and his tender Mercies in some kind are over all his works Thy Mercy O Lord is in the Heavens and thy Faithfulness reacheth to the Clouds Thy Righteousness is like the great Mountains thy Judgments are a great Deep O Lord thou preservest Man and Beast Psal 36.5 6. And Christ sets out
which God himself used in his most blessed Declaration of himself when he proclaimed of himself Exod. 34.6 7. The Lord the Lord God mercifull and gracious long-suffering and abundant in Goodness and Truth keeping Mercy for thousands forgiving Iniquity Transgression and Sin To which it is very likely he had an eye and that he made that Proclamation the rise of his Hope That though his Sins were great yet they were not any other then God had proclaimed of old he did forgive and after in his New Covenant he more fully assured the Condonation of them Jer. 31.34 Heb. 8.12 2. The thing David requesteth of God and that is full Remission expressed in three terms 1. Of Blotting out his Transgressions a phrase used by the Prophet Isa 43.25 and 44.22 And it intimates that his Sins were written by God in his Remembrance as in a Book of Records in the sense that Job said 13.26 and 14.17 God did write bitter things against him and sealed up his Iniquity And the blotting it out is the putting it out of his Remembrance so as not to charge it upon him nor condemn him for it as it is explained Isa 43.25 2. Of Washing him throughly from his Iniquity a term noting frequent or abundant washing that is Absolution meant by Ablution 1 Cor. 6.11 where it comprehends Justification as well as Sanctification And so it is said Revel 1.5 Christ hath washed us from our Sins in his own bloud alluding 't is likely to the cleansing of men from their Leprosy and other Legall Pollutions in the Mosaicall Law 3. The third term is Cleanse me from my Sin by Emundation meaning Emendation purifying his Heart from the love of his Sin and his Life from the practice of it any more as it is expressed Isa 1.16 17. Wash ye make you clean put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes cease to doe evil learn to doe well 3. The Third thing considerable in David's Petition which is indeed the Hindge on which all turns is the Loving-kindness or Benignity of God the Multitude of his tender Mercies such as are in the Womb or Bowells of a tender Mother towards her Child And this Loving-kindness and Multitude of tender Mercies is urged by David as the Motive the impulsive Cause or sole Reason of granting his Request of blotting out his Transgressions washing him throughly from his Iniquity and cleansing him from his Sin In the same manner as Moses pleaded with God for Israel Num. 14.17 18 19. after whose Copy this Petition seems to be framed and is an exact Pattern according to which a Penitent Supplicant is to address himself to God for Ease from under the pressure of his Sins teaching us these Points 1. That the Remembrance of his Sin is the greatest Grievance to a Penitent Sinner David complains not of other Evils incident to him and his but his own Sin 2. That a Penitent Sinner doth not mince or lessen his Sin but setteth it out or confesseth it to God in its greatest Aggravations in variety of odious Appellations when he betakes himself to God for Redress 3. That the Blotting out of our Transgressions the Washing throughly from our Iniquity the cleansing from our Sin is to be sought from God 4. That we are to beg earnestly not onely for Blotting out our Transgressions but also for through Washing and Cleansing from Iniquity and Sin not onely by Condonation of them but also by Emendation and Amendment of life 5. That it is Loving-kindness and multitude of tender Mercies which is the Motive whereupon God blotteth out Transgressions washeth throughly the guilty Sinner from Iniquity and cleanseth him from his Sin 6. That the onely way to obtain these things is to beg them of God upon this consideration and no other You see a large field and copious matter is before us in which I might exspatiate far and prosecute a long time but I will endeavour to abbreviate and end with the time I. OBSERVATION That the Remembrance of his Sin is the greatest Grievance to a Penitent Sinner This is evident from their penitential Complaints In the many mournfull Elegies of David the great Pressure of his spirit lay in the Remembrance of his Sin Psal 38.3 4 5. There is no rest in my bones because of my Sin For mine Iniquities are gone over my head as an heavy burthen they are too heavy for me My Wounds stink and are corrupt because of my Foolishness And again Psal 40.12 Innumerable Evils have compassed me about mine Iniquities have taken hold upon me so that I am not able to look up they are more then the hairs of my head therefore my heart faileth me It is true Afflictions are hard to be born Poverty and Disgrace and Imprisonment and Pains of body are very heavy upon many persons Discontents and Fears of trouble Griefs and Sorrows for loss of Friends Wife Children do often quench mens spirits and sink them into the Grave Nor is it to be denied but that many times they cause men to prefer death before life and to chuse strangling before breathing Job 7.15 But upon the sense of Sin when the Conscience feels the weight of it when God shoots his Arrows into a man and haeret lateri lethalis Arundo the deadly Arrow sticks in his side then the Venome thereof drinks up his spirit is as the stinging of a Scorpion or fiery flying Serpent it tortures like Hell and is more bitter and terrible then Death it self The spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity saith Solomon Prov. 18.14 but a wounded spirit who can bear In other Afflictions there is some Remedy from Reason or Faith if not to comfort yet to quiet the Soul but in the sense of Sin committed till Pardon thereof be apprehended no Argument can be fastned but will be rejected Men in these Wounds of Conscience doe like persons in extreme Anguish who tear off their Plaisters that should ease or cure them so do wounded Consciences reject all Allegations of Scripture brought to allay their Anguish as if they belong'd not to them as Spira and others have done And that which is the Sting of Sin that most of all makes it deadly poisonous is the apprehension of God as angry as an Enemy unappeasable till it be acknowledged to be what it is an evil and bitter thing that we have sinned against the Lord and that his fear is not in us as the Prophet speaks Jer. 2.19 Which leads me to the II. OBSERVATION That a Penitent Sinner doth not mince or lessen his Sin but sets it out or confesseth it to God in its greatest Aggravations in variety of odious Appellations when he betakes himself to God for Redress So David besides the variety of terms he here paints out the Deformity of his Sins by adds also vers 3 4. I acknowledge my Transgressions and my Sin is ever before me Against thee thee onely have I sinned and done this Evil in thy sight
Sins have withholden good things from you Jer. 5.25 We may then thank our selves for all the Evils that come upon us we must not cast them upon Destiny Stars or any other Cause and leave out the principal Cause which is the plague of our own hearts God is neither the Authour of Sin nor the Punisher of Sin without cause It is the Devil's property to rejoyce in Evil and therefore as he tempts to Sin so he delights to torment It is otherwise with God Afflictions are Opus alienum his strange work He doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men To crush under his feet all the prisoners of the earth Lament 3.33 34. Is God unrighteous who taketh Vengeance I speak as a man God forbid for then how shall God judge the world saith the Apostle Rom. 3.5 6. We deny not that God might impose Sufferings on him that had no Sin of himself He made his Son to be Sin for us who knew no Sin 2 Cor. 5.21 Job's Calamities came on him by God's Permission though he were an upright man one that feared God and eschewed Evil Job 1.8 that he might prove his Integrity by his great Patience Of the Son who was born blind Christ saith Joh. 9.3 Neither hath this man sinned nor his Parents that is there was no special Sin committed by either of them as his Disciples deemed which was the immediate cause of his Blindness but it came to pass that the works of God should be made manifest in him The Holy Martyrs suffered for Righteousness sake and were therefore to count it all Joy when they fell into manifold Temptations But in such Evils as their Circumstances demonstrate to be from a more then common Hand of God specially when they are publick and universal as we are to acknowledge the Finger of God in them so we are to discern them to be the fruit of our doings and the work of our hands The Scripture styles them God's Judgments and we are sure saith the Apostle Rom. 2.2 that the Judgment of God is according to truth against them that commit such things And therefore though we are not allowed to judge of the afflicted as greater Sinners then others and point out them as the Causes of common Calamities yet we are to judge our selves and impute the Evil what-ever it be to our own Sins Moses the man of God in the 109. Psalm which was made in a time of great Mortality such as is now with us having said to God vers 7. We are consumed by thine Anger and by thy Wrath we are troubled addes vers 8. Thou hast set our Iniquities before thee and our secret Sins in the light of thy countenance It is true that all outward things happen alike to all there is in publick Calamities especially one event to the Righteous and to the Wicked No man knoweth love or hatred by all that is before him Eccles. 9.1 2. Yet even in these and all other that of the Prophet Lament 3.39 40. is necessary for every person to mind Wherefore doth a living man complain a man for the punishment of his Sins Let us search and try our ways and turn again unto the Lord. Though in this day of God's Visitation we may discern many common and open Sins the increase of which may be judged the Cause wherefore God brings this sore Scourge of the Pestilence in such a manner at such a time in those places on which it lights considering that God shoots not at Rovers but at a certain Mark and so the consideration of the Practices of the Persons and Places may justly lead us to determine that such Sins as have been by them and there committed are the Sins God punisheth for instance the Uncleanness Riot Profaneness and other Sins committed among us have brought down this Vengeance on our great City yet since there are particular Sins also with us and there is never a one of us but hath his secret Sins perhaps our Security putting far from us the Evil day living in Ease and Pleasure Unmercifulness and Insensibleness of the Afflictions of others secret Atheism Lukewarmness in Religion leaving our first Love Backsliding from our Profession secret Hypocrisie Formality without the Power of Godliness which may cause Christ to spue us out of his mouth it is necessary that the best of us make a strict Enquiry into our own Bosome-sins and resolve that God by this his Judgment on others calls our Sins to Remembrance and presseth us to justifie him and to betake our selves to his Mercy as the Psalmist here Let thy Mercy speedily prevent us Which leads me to the II. OBSERVATION That the Removing of the Calamities which are inflicted by God when he remembers mens Sins is the effect of God's tender Mercies So it is expresly said Lament 3.22 23. It is of the Lord's Mercies that we are not consumed because his Compassions fail not They are new every morning great is thy Faithfulness Vers 32. Though he cause Grief yet will he have Compassion according to the multitude of his Mercies And hereto accord very many speeches of God concerning himself That he is the Lord the Lord God mercifull and gracious long-suffering and abundant in Goodness and Truth keeping Mercy for thousands forgiving Iniquity Transgression and Sin as he says in his solemn Proclamation to Moses Exod. 34.6 7. Who is a God like unto thee that pardoneth Iniquity and passeth by the Transgression of the Remnant of his Heritage He retaineth not his Anger for ever because he delighteth in mercy Mic. 7.18 Hence it is that the Holy Writers and all the Saints do still celebrate his Mercies as being tender abundant free rejoycing against Judgment and to instance in no other there is a whole Psalm 136. in which the close of every verse is this For his Mercy endureth for ever And this Mercy of his is the Reason of all those works of Goodness he doeth as to the World in general in causing his Sun to rise on the Just and Vnjust and being kind to the Vnthankfull and to the Evil Luk. 6.35 so as that his tender Mercies are over all his works Psal 145.9 so chiefly to his own people all whose Deliverances and Benefits are made the fruits of his Mercy Above all the great Redemption in Christ of which the Apostle thus speaks Eph. 2.4 5. God who is rich in Mercy out of the great Love wherewith he hath loved us even when we were dead in Sins hath quickned us together with Christ is the effect of the highest most transcendent and everlasting Mercy Hence in all their Praises the Godly remember his Mercies as the Prophet Isa 63.7 I will mention the Loving-kindness of the Lord and the Praises of the Lord according to all that the Lord hath bestowed on us and the great Goodness towards the house of Israel which he hath bestowed on them according to his Mercies and according to the multitude of his Loving-kindnesses
that I desire besides thee My Flesh and my Heart faileth but God is the strength of my Heart and my portion for ever It is good for me to draw near to God I have put my Trust in the Lord God Such Apprehensions as these do affect the Spirits of a man as the breaking out of the Sun doth the Eyes after it hath been overcast with thick Clouds in the day or concealed by the Darkness of the night Then the Light is sweet and it is a pleasant thing to behold the Sun So it is with the Soul after such Perplexities and Affrightments and Disconsolations of Spirit as are incident to the most holy Saint by reason of the seeming Disorders and dismall Occurrences in the world which are obvious to him When he recollects himself and determines against all Arguings ad oppositum that the Lord God is a Sun and a Shield the Lord will give Grace and Glory no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly O Lord of hoasts blessed is the man that trusteth in thee Psal 84.11 12. then he delights himself in the Lord as the most pleasant and eligible Good thing as his Sun and his Shield and accordingly fixes his Contemplations on God quickens chears confirms raises up his Spirits in the remembrance of him expresses himself in holy Hymns in devout Prayers in wise Observations of his Doings in commemorating of his Works and his Word in holy Conferences and such like ways as shew that none is so amiable to him as God none to be adhered to in comparison of him none to be glorified like unto God Conformably hereto he delights in the Consideration of God's most excellent Being that he is not like the Vanities of the Nations that he is the living God and an everlasting King that in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting Strength that there is none holy as the Lord no Rock like unto our God that great is our Lord and of great Power his Vnderstanding is infinite that he is mercifull and gracious abundant in Goodness and Truth He delights also in the beholding and observation of his Works which however they are not minded by them who are alienated from the Life that is in God yet to the Godly enlightned Soul they appear Great so that in Admiration of them he is affected like the Psalmist Psal 8.1 O Lord our God how excellent is thy Name in all the Earth who hast set thy Glory above the Heavens Psal 104.24 In wisedom hast thou made them all and rulest all He is holy in all his Ways and righteous in all his Works and therefore are they sought out of all them that have pleasure therein His Work is honourable and glorious and his Righteousness endureth for ever And hereupon the Psalmist resolves Psal 104.34 My meditation of him shall be sweet I will be glad in the Lord. Nor is his Delight less in God's Word then in his Works I will praise thy Name saith David Psal 138.2 for thy Loving-kindness and for thy Truth for thou hast magnified thy Word above all thy Name And thus he often professeth that the Word of God his Judgments were more to be desired then Gold yea then much fine Gold sweeter then Hony and the Hony-comb that not onely his Word of Promise was his Comfort in his Affliction for by it he was quickened but that he greatly delighted in God's Commands they were the Joy of his heart And Holy Job 23.12 I have esteemed the Word of his mouth more then my necessary Food But Holy mens greatest Delight in God is when by Faith in Christ they apprehend God to be their God and they his People that he dwells in them they are his Temple that they are made by him Kings and Priests to him by his Spirit that he is their Father through Christ they his Children that they have access to him by the Faith of Christ and are assured of an Inheritance above with him When they understand this that Christ is All to them they delight in the Almighty and lift up their face unto God with Joy as it is Job 22.26 Now this indeed is best for the Godly thus to delight themselves in the Lord even in their own lowest Conditions and their Oppressours highest because the greatest Good that Evil men have is but vain Be it Plenty Peace Honour Liberty Power Pleasure or what-ever else is valued by men that have their Portion in this life it is but an imperfect fading vexing Good much of it is such as Beasts injoy more fully then they who have more Delight in their Food and sensitive Pleasure then Men have Applause Honours Wealth are but Toys such as Childish persons delight in rather then wise Men. Philosophers by the Light of Nature have censured them as empty of reall Worth not good because they made not the Possessours of them good Wisedom and Vertue are by them preferred before them Yea they bring often much Vexation in stead of Delight In acquiring and Using them is much Vanity In the midst of Laughter the Heart is sorrowfull Solomon styles it Madness But Delight in the Lord is the most rationall exquisite durable Delight far above not onely Epicurus his Pleasure and Zeno's Vertue and Seneca's Tranquillity of mind but also Solomon's Glory his Wisedom his Knowledge of the Properties of Natural bodies and what-ever Excellency short of Acquaintance with God he was endued with He confesseth as much in the close of his Penitentialls and before him his Father David Psal 4.6 7. There be many that say Who will shew us any Good Lord lift thou up the light of thy Countenance upon us Thou hast put Gladness in my Heart more then in the time that their Corn and their Wine increased This makes the Saints delight in Prayer and Praise and other Worship of God it being their Privilege as well as their Duty to delight themselves in the Lord Isa 58.14 and according to the Desire of their Heart Which brings me to the II. OBSERVATION That they who delight themselves in the Lord shall have their Hearts Desire and in fine speed better then they who are in the most illustrious estate of Wicked men The principal Desire of one that delights himself in God is to glorifie God that is the main End of such as glory in God that they may doe all to his Glory Therefore are they taught to make this their first Petition Hallowed be thy Name and to that end to pray Thy Kingdom come Thy Will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven Even in God's most severe Dealings with them they say with those Isa 26.8 Yea in the way of thy Judgments O Lord have we waited for thee the desire of our Soul is to thy Name and to the Remembrance of thee To which that of the Apostle Phil. 1.20 is consonant According to my earnest expectation and my hope that in nothing I shall be ashamed but that with all boldness as always
it is said Thou art a God ready to pardon or a God of Pardons gracious and mercifull slow to anger and of great Kindness And the Prophet Isa 55.7 exhorts the wicked to return unto the Lord and he will have mercy on him and to our God for he will abundantly pardon It is then one of God's Jewells which his Crown is set with that he is not as a cruell Tyrant or infernall Fiend with whom there is nothing but Cruelty and Mischievousness but as a gracious King or loving Father in whom is Clemency as well as Justice affectionate Forgiveness as well as severe Correction Which that we may the better conceive it being that on which our Life lies it will be requisite that we consider 1. What Sins God forgives 2. For what Motive 3. To whom he forgives them 4. Why he forgives them I. For the first our Saviour hath resolved it in express terms Mark 3.28 29. Verily I say unto you All Sins shall be forgiven to the sons of men and Blasphemies wherewithsoever they shall blaspheme But he that blasphemeth against the Holy Ghost hath never Forgiveness but is in danger of eternall Damnation What this Sin is and whether any be at this day guilty of it is a Question that requires some disquisition The Schoolmen as Aquinas make six Species of the Sin against the Holy Ghost Despair Presumption Impenitency Obstinacy Impugning the acknowledged Truth and Envying our Brother's Grace Protestant Divines taking in other Texts out of the Epistles to the Hebrews and Titus and out of S. John's 1. Epistle have formed such a Definition as this That it is a Blaspheming against the Gospel of Christ testified by a clear Conviction of the Spirit of God in the heart of the Blasphemer arising out of a spightfull Hatred and obstinate Rejection of that Truth and Testimony of and by which he was convinced causing an oppugning of it and the Avouchers of it upon the strong possession Satan hath got in his Heart But the Text Mark 3.30 in which it is added Because they said He hath an unclean Spirit doth seem to restrain it to that spightfull belying Christ's Miracles done by the Spirit of God most evividently so as that they could not gainsay it as if they were done by the Prince of Devils and Christ were possessed and acted by an Unclean Spirit Which makes it very probable that none at this day can as things are commit it there being no such Miracles now done as can evidently shew the Operation of the Holy Spirit to be blasphemed as it was by the Pharisees Nor is Julian the Apostate sufficiently proved however so judged by some of the Ancients to have committed this Sin Much less have any of those doubting Souls who by reason of their Tenderness of Conscience which makes them very jealous and fearfull of their own Condition have been apt to charge themselves with this Sin any reason so to doe they being guilty of no such Blasphemy in words Rejecting of Christ Speaking evil of his Spirit or its Operations Oppugning of the Gospel or the Believers of it nor of any Obstinacy in any course of open Persecution or Disclaiming Christ and his Gospel Perhaps this which I have said may be of great use to some doubting and troubled Spirits who put themselves on the Rack through Mistakes arising from the Weakness of their Understandings and the Fearfulness of their Hearts As for any other Sins they are not in their own nature unpardonable other Blasphemies are pardonable Peter's Denying Christ though with Cursing himself if he knew him yet had Pardon Manasseh though notorious for his Cruelties as filling Jerusalem with innocent Bloud even of the Prophets of God though infamous for his setting up the most abominable Idolatries of the Gentiles though proceeding so far as to use Familiar spirits yet when he was humbled and prayed to God in his Affliction God heard him and forgave him 2 Chron. 33.12 13. I instance in these as seeming to come nighest to the Sin against the Holy Ghost the one sinning against Knowledge after Warning and solemn Promise to the contrary the other offending in the most hainous manner in Sins of the greatest Guilt with extreme Wilfulness and Violence Not to mention the Sins of David or Lot or Noah or Solomon If Cain meant it as the Vulgar Latin hath it Gen. 4.13 My Sin is greater then can be forgiven it might well be replied to him Mentiris Cain Thou liest Cain Thy Sin might have been forgiven if thou hadst had a penitent Heart and hadst begged Pardon from God Though in the Law God would not forgive some Sins as Blasphemy Murther Adultery Sins with an high hand so as to expiate them by Sacrifice and free the Sinner from death though God sware to Eli that the Iniquities of his House should not be purged with Sacrifice nor Offerings for ever 1 Sam. 3.14 though he never will pardon the Sin of Devils of Judas the Son of Perdition nor the final Impenitent and Unbeliever Yet Christ tells us plainly No kind of Sin or Blasphemy except one but is pardonable to the sons of men II. But then upon what Motive God forgiveth Sins is to be farther considered They that say that any Sins against God are venial ex genere suo the whole kind of them of their own Nature as having an evil or inordinate thing for their Object but not against the Love of God or our Neighbour or by reason of the Smalness of the matter in which or the sudden Motion by which they are done speak otherwise then the Scripture which makes the Wages of Sin simply and every Sin death Rom. 6.23 and him cursed who continues not in every thing written in the Law to doe it Gal. 3.10 They derogate from the efficacy of Christ's Bloud which alone is it that cleanseth from all Sin make it a light matter to sin against the Most high and infinite Majesty would excuse our First Parents Sin and harden men in Impenitency And when they make voluntary Works of Penance Satisfaction for such Sins Priests Absolutions Popes Pardons and saying of Divine Offices for the Sinner sufficient to take away the Guilt of Sin against God though they provide for their accursed Gain yet they derogate from the Necessity and alone Sufficiency of Christ's Bloud who is the onely Advocate with the Father and the Propitiation for our Sins and the Sins of the whole world 1 Joh. 2.1 2. We learn Heb. 9.22 that without shedding of bloud is no Remission and that though the Sacrifices of the Law might procure Forgiveness in respect of some Penalties and sanctify to the purifying of the Flesh yet that it is the Bloud of Christ alone who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God that can purge our Consciences from dead works to serve the living God vers 14. and that it is for Christ's sake whom God hath set forth to be a Propitiation through faith
man's Portion in the next You that give your minds to rise at Court or to be Rich in the City to build fair Houses to fill them with costly Furniture to store them with the most dainty Provision to goe in the bravest Attire and to mind your Ease and Delight bethink your selves how sutable this is with the Divine Contrivance and the Affections of Saints I deny not but an Abraham may be rich and yet blessed a David may be great and yet happy God may and I doubt not doth chuse some though not many Rich and Great in this world to be Heirs of the Kingdom which he hath prepared for them that love him But then it must be so that they love not their Riches nor their Greatness but God that they be as Abraham was ready to leave all for God to obey God in the harshest Commands to wait upon God with Patience for his Help They must have as Moses had a Will resolved to suffer Affliction with God's People rather then to injoy the Pleasures of Sin for a season to esteem the Reproach of Christ greater Riches then the Treasures of Egypt They must be as Christ was not of the World though in the World not from beneath but from above having God's Glory in their Eye Christ's Example as their Loadstone seeking the things above where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God and directing all their Motions and Affections towards Heaven and Heavenly things I press you not to sell all that you have and give to the Poor as Christ did the young man whom he loved nor to sell your Lands as the Primitive Christians did and lay them down at the Apostles feet Yet I must tell you that if you will follow Christ you must in praeparatione Animi in the purpose of your Heart doe these things and more too even hate your own Lives if the Command of God the Glory of God the Kingdom of Christ the Good of God's Church shall require it or stand in competition therewith I do account of the Friers Vows of voluntary Poverty perpetuall Continency and regular Obedience so far from true Sanctity that they are rather mere Snares and like those Services of which God said by the Prophet Quis quaesivit haec de manibus vestris Who hath required these things at your hands they being neither undertaken by God's Command nor having any Promise of his Blessing or Acceptance Those Princes therefore that have laid down their Scepters and thrust themselves into Cloisters have been befooled by superstitious Priests and have found cause of Repentance for that their ill-grounded Devotion But yet this you must doe if you will love God you must not love the World nor the things thereof you must devote all to God relinquish all at his Appointment you must use the World as not abusing it knowing that the Fashion of this World passeth away You must be as Pilgrims on Earth lay up your Treasures in Heaven and have your Heart there seek your Rest with God in Christ and in the mean time walk with God use all for him and be content to be at his Disposing in Life and Death as Abraham was and then you shall sit down with Abraham in the Kingdom of Heaven Which the Lord grant c. Amen LAVS DEO IN AETERNVM THE END A MEDITATION on GOD'S MERCY being the Subject of most of the SERMONS herein contained WHEN we seek after God we consult with his Works but when we study to know what he is we have recourse unto those Notions which are above his Works The Creature helps us to find him out but his Power Infinity and Mercy instruct us to understand him Neither do these Attributes equally acquaint us with him His Power informs us that he is God but his Mercy much more For by his Power he onely conquered that Difficulty which Nature presented him with in her first Principle Nothing but by his Mercy he overcomes Himself It sometimes reverseth the Sentence past against a Nation and so it makes him incurre the imputation of Mutability Sometimes it pulls back the stretched-out Arm and like the Angel that laid hold on Abraham violently detains the execution of his Fury and so it upbraideth him with Impotency It is not then enough to say that it exceeds all his Works unless we adde it is that also whereby he is subdued unto Himself As God who is our utmost Aim having placed himself at the Journey 's end is All Mercy so are the Ways that lead unto him His Ways are Mercy and Truth And as he is onely found by those that seek him so is he onely sought for truly by those that travell in this Way The Mercifull and they onely shall find Mercy The Light communicates its Glory unto that Eye alone which hath a native Light and Splendour to entertain it even so doth God reach out his Mercy unto that Soul which is before made capable by an innate Tenderness and Compassion To forgive and to have Compassion are the peculiar Affects of Mercy If I forgive mine Enemy I have Mercy on my self for to him that forgiveth much also shall be forgiven But if I have Compassion on the Distressed I have pity on my Saviour for 't is him I feed I cloath in the persons of the Hungry and of the Naked God hath given unto men a Nature which inclineth them unto Pity and therefore Cruelty is a Vice of the Will 's begetting Since then Nature hath no Inclination bad enough out of which it may spawn so vile a Brood I will not be at so much pains as to force the Soil that a Weed may grow nor love that Sin which will not be entertained unless I disclaim my Nature God once commanded Sacrifices that he might have Mercy upon Men and yet he was willing to have spared them that if they would have spared one another I will have Mercy and not Sacrifice was his demand of old but now much more for since he hath taken away the Law of Sacrifices it remains that we imploy all our Obedience in the observance of that Law which is left behind which is the Law of Charity God hath abated something of his own Worship that we might have more leisure to perform those Duties which respect one another If we would have God commune with us as once he did with the Jews from his Mercy-seat it will be first required of us that like the Cherubins there placed we carry our Faces one towards another not turning aside from the Distressed nor obliquely glancing upon any as averse from Peace God seems to instruct us by that Fabrick in the Ark that he then makes his Approach to us from his Mercy-seat when we turn face to face that is when we are alike minded one towards another God that he might reconcile his Justice to his Mercy and so save the delinquent Creature became severe to himself so much he loved us that he seemed to