Honour thy Glory lies bleeding and suffers through the Sins of Men Why commit thy care to God He will certainly so weild their Lusts as that they shall bring about and effect his own ends God is glorifying himself even by these things and why then should we be troubled This thought kept alive on our hearts would cause us to rest satisfied amidst all the tumults we observe and hear of in the World For though we know not how to unwind these ravelled dispensations to the bottom of his Glory yet he can and will There is an invisible and wise hand that moulds and fashions all and though the parts by themselves may appear rude and unpolish'd yet put the whole frame and series of Providence together and that will appear most admirable and glorious Now to the King Eternal Immortal Invisible the only wise God Father Son and Holy Ghost be honour and glory for ever and ever Amen The End of the first Sermon A Discourse concerning the use of the Holy Scriptures Colossians III. 16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all Wisdom THis Epistle if any other is a rich mine of Heavenly Treasure and abounds both in the discovery of Gospel Mysteries and the injunction of Christian Duties It is furnisht throughout with that which may either instruct us in Knowledge or direct us in Practice And the Apostle having already laid down many Excellent things in order to both these and seeing it would be an endless task to discourse unto them all the Truths or exhort them to all the Duties of Religion in particular he therefore speaks compendiously in the words of my Text and referrs them to the perfect Systeme in which is contained an account of what a Christian ought to know or do and that is the Holy Scriptures Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly The words of this Exhortation are very full and laden with weighty Sence We may resolve them into two parts First Here is the Nature and Substance of the Exhortation which is to a diligent Study and plentifull knowledge of the Holy Scriptures Secondly The manner how we ought to be Conversant in them So that it may dwell in us richly in all Wisdom In the former we may take notice that the Scripture is called the word of Christ and that upon a double account both because he is the Author that composed it and likewise he is the subject matter of which it principally treats Now though in both these respects the Scriptures of the New Testament be more especially the word of Christ yet also may the Scriptures of the Old Testament as truly and properly go under his Name For First He is the Author of them all He may well write this Title upon our Bibles The Works of Jesus Christ All the Prophets before his Incarnation were but his Amanuenses and wrote only what he by his Spirit dictated to them 2 Pet. 1.21 Prophecy came not in old time by the will of Man but holy Men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost and certainly the Holy Ghost inspired them by Christ's Authority and Commission and what he declared he took from him and shewed it unto them John 16.14 15. He shall receive of mine and shall shew it unto you Secondly Christ also is the principal subject and matter of the whole Scripture The sending Christ a Saviour into the World is that great Business which hath employed the Counsel of the Father the Admiration and Ministration of Angels the Tongues and Pens of Prophets Apostles and holy Men of all Ages before the Scriptures were Written when Revelation or Tradition were yet the only positive Rules for Faith and Practice The Patriarchs saw him by these Abraham saw my day and was glad Joh. 8.56 Afterwards the People of the Jews saw him by Types Promises and Prophecies recorded in the Scriptures He was that Excellent Theme that hath filled up many Chapters of the Old Testament as the first draught of a Picture represents the features and proportion of the Person but afterwards is added the complexion and life to it So is it here the Pens of the Prophets drew the first Lineaments and Proportion of Christ in the Old Testament and the Pens of the Apostles and Evangelists have added the Life and Sweetness to it in the New Yea Christ is so truly described in the Old Testament by his Life by his Death by all the greater Remarks of either that in his Contest with the Jews he appeals thither for a Testimony John 5.39 Search the Scriptures for they are they which testifie of me And St. Peter Acts 3.24 Affirms That all the Prophets as many as have spoken have foretold of these days And Acts 10.43 To him give all the Prophets Witness Christ who is the true Expositor being himself the true Author makes them all speak his Sence Luke 24.27 Beginning at Moses and all the Prophets he expounded to them in all the Scriptures the sayings concerning himself So that St. Chrysostom's Observation holds true that the Gospel was in the World before Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It took root in the writings of the Prophets but flowed forth in the preaching of the Apostles so that in both these respects the Holy Scripture may well be called the Word of Christ of Christ as the Author and as the Subject of it And in both these lies coucht a very cogent Argument that may inforce this exhortation of the Apostle and excite them to a diligent study of the Scriptures For First Is Christ the Author of them and shall we not with all care and diligence peruse these Books which he hath Composed The writings of Men are valued according to the Abilities of their Authors If they be of approved Integrity profound Knowledge solid Judgment their works are Esteemed and Studied And shall we not be much more Conversant in these which are set forth by the Author who is truth it self and the essential wisdom of the Father These that were dictated by the imediate inspiration of the Holy Ghost and writ as it were with a Quill of the Heavenly Dove Secondly Christ is the subject of the Scriptures And what is all other Learning and Knowledge but beggarly Elements if compared with this Here we have the Cabinet of God's Counsels unlockt the Eternal purposes of his Grace in sending his Son into the World publickly declared Here we have the Stupendous History of God's becoming Man of all the Miracles this God-man did upon Earth of all the Cruelties he Suffered Here we have the Description of his Victory in his Resurrection of his Triumph in his Ascention of his Glory in his Session at the right hand of the Majesty on High Surely great is the Mystery of Godliness God manifested in the Flesh justified in the Spirit seen of Angels preached unto the Gentiles believed on in the World received up into Glory as the Apostle with admiration recounts it
AN EXPOSITION ON THE Lord's Prayer WITH A Catechistical Explication Thereof by way of QVESTION and ANSWER For the Instructing of YOUTH To which is added some SERMONS On Providence and the Excellent Advantages of Reading and Studying the Holy Scriptures By EZEKIEL HOPKINS late Lord Bishop of London-Derry LONDON Printed for Nathanael Ranew at the Kings-Arms and Edward Mory at the Three Bibles in St. Paul's Church-Yard 1692. EZEKIEL HOPKINS EPISCOPUS DERENSIS Printed for Nathanael Ranew Imprimatur Guil. Lancaster R. P. D. Henrico Ep. Lond. Ã Sacris Domesticis April 7. 1692. THE PREFACE TO THE READER Christian Reader THe following Discourses upon that Excellent and Divine Prayer of our Blessed Saviour contain so much of Practical Divinity necessary to be known by all Christians and are so Solidly and Judiciously handled that they need no Epistle Recommendatory unto the World having the Stamp of the Divine Authority upon the Truths contained in them But if any shall curiously enquire whether this Reverend and Learned Prelate designed and finished them for the Press I may truly return the same Answer that is given in Print by the present Bishop of Cork and Ross to the same Question in his Epistle to the Reader before this Author's Exposition on the Ten Commandments namely That they were Transcribed by himself and by him deposited in the hands of a Minister whom he could intrust to be made Publick after his Decease whose Epistle should have been prefixed hereunto but that he is far distant in another Nation and the Press cannot tarry so long for it the Book being just finished And as a further Confirmation that his Lordship intended it should be made Publick appears by his so often quoting this his Discourse on the Lord's Prayer in his Treatise on the Commandments which could not be seen or read by others but by the Printing of it Vpon which many Persons have been very desirous and inquisitive after it Vnto this large and general Exposition on the Lord's Prayer there is added a brief and short Catechistical Explication thereof by way of Question and Answer made use of by his Lordship for the instructing of the younger and more ignorant Christians in the Knowledge and Vnderstanding of those Divine and Heavenly Truths contained in this most Excellent Prayer And for a Conclusion of all there are added several Sermons Preached by this Learned Prelate upon the Providence of God and on the Excellency and Usefulness of Reading and Studying the Holy Scriptures All which have been diligently and carefully perused by several Persons of the Author's Acquaintance both of the Clergy and others with very good Acceptance and Satisfaction and the whole is now with Approbation exposed unto publick view And that the present Publication of them may tend much to the promoting of the Honour and Glory of God and the Edification of many Souls in Grace and Holiness is the hearty Prayer of the Publisher Farewell The Vanity of the World with other Sermons in Octavo Discourses and Sermons on several Scriptures in Octavo An Exposition on the Ten Commandments with other Sermons in Quarto All Written by Ezekiel Hopkins late Lord Bishop of London-Derry and Sold by Nathanael Ranew A Practical EXPOSITION ON THE LORD'S PRAYER Matth. VI. 9 10. c. After this manner therefore Pray ye Our Father which art in Heaven Hallowed be thy Name Thy Kingdom come Thy Will be done in Earth as it is in Heaven Give us this Day our daily Bread And forgive us our Debts as we forgive our Debtors And lead us not into Temptation But deliver us from Evil For thine is the Kingdom the Power and the Glory for ever Amen HAving often seriously considered with my self of the great use that is made of this most excellent Form of Prayer composed by our Blessed Lord and Saviour himself as also of the great Benefit and Advantage that might accrue unto all those that with understanding make a due use of it in their daily Devotions I thought it might be very necessary for your Instruction and greatly conducible unto your Salvation to lay before your consideration as brief and succinct an Exposition thereof as the large extent and various copiousness of the matter contained therein will permit The Blessed Apostle St. Paul in 1 Cor. 14.15 tells us That he would pray with the Spirit and he would pray with Vnderstanding also And indeed when we pray to pray with Understanding what we pray is one great requisite to make our Prayers Spiritual and through the prevailing Intercession of Jesus Christ to become acceptable unto God the Father But to mutter over a road of Words only as the Papists are taught and as multitudes of many ignorant Persons among us do also without understanding what they signifie or being duly affected with those Wants and Necessities which we beg of God the Supplies of is not to offer up a Prayer unto the Almighty but only to make a Charm Now because there is no Form of Prayer that ever we have heard or read of that is deservedly so much in use as this of our Lord's is I shall endeavour in some Discourses thereupon to unfold to you those Voluminous Requests which we offer up unto God when we thus pray as our Saviour here teacheth us wherein as I doubt not but as I may greatly instruct the Ignorance of many so possibly I may bring very much to the remembrance of those who have attained to great understanding in Religion those things which may provoke their Zeal and excite their Affections and both these Undertakings through the Blessing of God upon it may be very usefully profitable to enable them to pray with Understanding and with the Spirit also when they approach the Throne of Grace to present their Petitions unto the Great God as by the Intercession so in the Words of his dear Son In this Chapter which contains in it a great part of our Saviour's Sermon on the Mount our Lord lays before his Hearers several Directions concerning two necessary Duties in a Christian's Practice and they are Alms-giving and Prayer the former a Duty relating more immediately unto Men the latter a Duty in a more especial manner respecting God himself in both which he not only cautions us against but strictly forbids all Ostentation and Vain-Glory Therefore says he when thou dost thine Alms do not sound a Trumpet before thee for this is the Practice of Hypocrites that they may have Glory of Men verse 2. And when thou prayest be not as the Hypocrites for they love to pray in the Synagogues and Corners of the Streets that they may be seen of Men verse 5. Thus must we not do in either of these Cases For as we must not give Alms that we may be seen of Men so neither must we pray that we may be heard and observed of Men For what can be more absurd and ridiculous as well as wicked and impious than to be begging Applause from some when we
require your humble Veneration Secondly The Scripture is suited to every Capacity It is as it is commonly exprest a Ford wherein a Lamb may wade and an Elephant swim and herein is the infinite Wisdom of God seen in wreathing together plain Truths with obscure that he might gain the more Credit to his Word by the one instructing the ignorance of the weakest by the other puzling and confounding the understanding of the wisest This also adds a Beauty and Ornament to the Scripture As the Beauty of the World is set off by a gracefull variety of Hills and Valleys so is it in the Scripture There are sublime Truths that the most aspiring reason of Man cannot over-top and there are more plain and easie Truths in which the weakest Capacity may converse with Delight and Satisfaction No Man is offended with his Garden for having a shady thicket in it no more should we be offended with the word of God that among so many fair and open Walks we here and there meet with a Thicket that the Eye of Humane Reason cannot look through Thirdly Those Truths that are absolutely necessary to Salvation are as plainly without either Obscurity or Ambiguity recorded in the Scripture as if they were as the Mahumetans think concerning their Alcoran written with Ink made of Light there 's the necessity of Faith in Jesus Christ of repentance for dead works of an holy and mortified Life so clearly set down that scarce have there any been found so impudent as to raise Controversies about them and is it not peevish to quarrel at the word for being obscure in those things which if thou hast used thy utmost Diligence to understand the ignorance of them shall not at all prejudice thy Salvation Bless God rather that he hath so clearly revealed the necessary and practical Duties of a Christian Life that those are not involved in any mystical or obscure Intimations but thou mayst without doubt or dispute know what is of absolute necessity to be either believed or practised in order to Salvation Be assured of this that what with all thy Labour and Diligence thou canst not understand thou needest not and what is needful is plain and obvious and thou mayest easily understand it Fourthly the Scripture is obscure but hath not God offered us sufficient helps for the unfolding of it Have you not the promise of his Spirit to illuminate you 1 Cor. 2.10 God hath revealed them to us by his Spirit for the Spirit searcheth all things yea the deep things of God Have we not his Minister whose Office it is to instruct us and lead us into the inmost Sence of the Scriptures Nay have we not the Scripture it self which is the best interpreter of its own meaning usually if it speak more darkly in one place it speaks the same truth more clearly in another Now compare Scripture with Scripture you will find it holds a Light unto its self The oftner you read and the more you ponder on those passages that are abstruse the more you will find them clear up to your understanding So that neither is this any reasonable discourgement from studying the Holy Scriptures Eighthly Others may say they are doubtful because they see many of those who have been most Conversant in the Scripture how they have been perverted and carried aside into damnable Errors and yet still have pleaded Scripture for the defence of them I answer True the Devil hath in these our days busied himself to bring a reproach upon Scripture through the whimsies and giddiness of those who have pretended most acquaintance in it But let not this be any discouragement for this ariseth not directly from the influence the Scripture hath on them which is the rule of truth only but from the pride and self conceit of a few Notionists who wrest it to their own Perdition And though they boast much of Scripture to countenance their Opinions yet Scripture misunderstood and misapplyed is not Scripture Indeed there is no other way to discern truth from Error but only by the Scripture rightly understood and there is no way rightly to understand it but diligently to search it But to say that therefore we must not read the Scripture because some wrest it to their own Destruction is alike reasonable as to say that therefore we must not Eat nor Drink because that some eat to Glutony and others drink to Giddiness and Madness The Apostle St. Peter tells us Epist 1 Chap. 3. v. 16. that in St. Paul's Epistles there were some things hard to be understood which the unlearned and unstable wrest as they do also the other Sriptures to their own destruction Shall we therefore conclude that neither his Epistle nor any other of the Scriptures should be read by us because that in some instead of Nourishment they have occasioned onely Wind Flatulency and ill humours If this had been his purpose it had certainly been very easie for him to have said Because they are hard to be understood and many wrest them to their own destruction therefore beware that you read them not But in stead of this he draws another inference verse 17. Ye therefore beloved beware least ye also being led away with the Errors of the Wicked fall from your own stedfastness but grow in grace and in the Knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ He saith not beware that you read them not but beware how you read them This is the true Apostolical Caution which tends not to drive us from the Scriptures but to make us more studious and inquisitive in them least we also be perverted by the cunning craftiness of Men who lie in wait to deceive And this the Primitive Parents thought the best and surest means to preserve their People from Error and Seduction It were almost endless to recite to you those many passages wherein they do most Pathetically exhort all of all Ranks and Conditions of each Sex of all Ages to a diligent perusal of the Holy Scriptures And so far were they from taking it up in a Language unknown to the Vulgar or debarring the Laity from Reading it that the Translations of it into the common Tongue of each Country were Numerous and their Exhortations scarce more vehement and earnest in any thing than that the People would employ their time and thoughts in revolving them It is therefore a most certain sign that that Church hath false wares to put off which is of nothing more careful than to darken the Shop And assuredly the wresting the Scriptures by some who read them cannot occasion the Destruction of more than that damnable Idolatry and those damnable Heresies have done which have been brought into and are generally owned and practised by the Church of Rome through the not reading of them Thus you see as it was in Josiah's time how much dust and Rubbish this Book of the Law lies under I have endeavoured to remove it And shall now proceed to those Arguments that
Angels Now these the Scripture propounds unto us not only to pose but to perfect our understanding For that little knowledge we can attain unto in these things is far more excellent than the most comprehensive knowledge of all things else in the World And where our scanty apprehensions fall short of fathoming these deep mysteries the Apostle hath taught us to seek it out with an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 11.33 O the depth of the Riches both of the Knowledge and Wisdom of God! how unreasearchable are his Judgments and his ways past finding out Thirdly The Scripture is an inexhaustible Fountain of Knowledge the more you draw from it the more still springs up It is a deep Mine and the farther you search into it still the richer you find it It is tedious to read the works and writings of Men often over because we are soon at the bottom of what they deliver and our understanding hath nothing new to refresh it But in reading the Scripture it fares with us as it did with those whom Christ miraculously fed the bread multiplied under their Teeth and increased in the very chewing of it So here while we ruminate and chew on the truths of the Scripture they multiply and rise up thicker under our meditation One great cause of the neglect that many are guilty of in reading the Holy Scripture is a fear that they shall but meet with the same things again which they have already read and known and this they account tedious and irksome Indeed if they read it only Superficially and slightly it will be so But those who fix their minds to ponder and meditate upon the word find new truths arising up to their understanding which they never before discovered Look as it is in a Starry night if you cast your Eyes upon many spaces of the Heavens at the first glance perhaps you shall discover no Stars there yet if you continue to look earnestly and fixedly some will emerge to your view that were before hid and concealed So is it with the Holy Scriptures If we only glance curiously upon them no wonder we discover no more Stars no more glorious truths beaming out their light to our Understanding St. Augustine found this so experimentally true that he tells us in his third Epistle that though he should with better capacity and greater diligence study all his Life time from the beginning of his Childhood to decrepit Age nothing else but the Holy Scriptures yet they are so compacted and thick set with truths that he might daily learn something which before he knew not God hath as it were studied to speak compendiously in the Scriptures What a Miracle of brevity is it that the whole Duty of Man relating both to God and his Neighbour should be all comprised in ten words Not a word but were the sence of it drawn out were enough to fill whole Volumes and therefore the Psalmist Psal 119.96 I have seen an end of all perfection but thy Commandments are exceeding broad When we have attained the knowledge of those things that are absolutely necessary to Salvation there yet remain such depths of Wisdom both in the manner of Scripture expression and in the mysteriousness of things exprest that after our utmost industry still there will be left new truths to become the discovery of a new search Fourthly The Scripture exhibits to us that knowledge which is necessary to Eternal Salvation This is Life Eternal to know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent John 17.3 And this knowledge the Scriptures alone can afford us John 5.39 So 2 Tim. 3.15 We need not therefore enquire after blind traditions or expect any whimsical Enthusiasms the written word contains whatsoever is necessary to be known in order to Eternal Salvation and whosoever is wise above what is written is wise only in impertinences Now hath God contracted whatever was necessary for us to know and summed it up in one Book and shall not we be diligent and industrious in studying that which doth so necessarily concern us Other knowledge is only for the adorning and embellishment of Nature this is for the necessity of Life of Life Eternal I have before spoken enough concerning the necessity of knowledge unto Salvation and therefore shall not farther inlarge Therefore as St. Peter said to Christ Lord whither shall we go thou hast the words of Eternal Life So let us Answer whatsoever may seem to call us off from the diligent study of the Scriptures Whither shall we go to this we must cleave with this we will converse for here alone are the words of Eternal Life Fifthly The Knowledge that the Scripture discloseth is of undoubted Certainty and perpetual Truth it depends not upon Probabilities or Conjectures but the infallible Authority of Christ himself he hath dictated it for whom it is impossible to lye The rule of our Veracity or Truth is the conformity of our Speech to the existency of Things but divine Truth and Veracity hath no other Rule besides the Will of him that speaks it He must needs speak infallible Truth who speaks things into their beings such is the omnipotent Speech of God Whatsoever he declares is therefore true because he declares it Never matter how strange and impossible Scripture-Mysteries may seem to Flesh and Blood to the corrupt and captious understandings of natural Men when the word of God hath undertaken for the Truth it is as much impiety to doubt of them as it is Folly to question the reality of what we see with our very Eyes Nay the information of our Senses what we see what we hear what we feel is not so certain as the truth of those things which God reveals and testifies in the Scriptures And therefore the Apostle 2 Pet. 1.18 19. Speaking of that Miraculous Voice that sounded from Heaven Matth. 17.5 This is my beloved Son in whom I am well Pleased We saith the Apostle heard this Voice when we were with him in the Holy Mount but we have also a more sure word of Prophecy or as the Greek may well be rendred We account more sure the word of Prophecy unto which ye do well that ye take heed What a more sure word than a Voice from Heaven When God himself shall vocally bear witness to the Truth Yes we have a more sure Word and that 's the Word of Prophesie recorded in the Old Testament And hence it will follow that because the Prophecies concerning Christ may seem somewhat obscure in Comparison with this audible Voice from Heaven therefore the testimony of obscure Scripture is to be preferred before the testimony of clear Sence Now therefore if you would know things beyond all danger either of Falshood or Hesitation be Conversant in the Scripture where we may take all for certain upon the Word and Authority of that God who neither can deceive nor be deceived Sixthly The Scripture alone gives us the true and unerring Knowledge
comes from the Grace of God therefore much less can we do any thing to merit it Far be it from us to affirm as the Papists do that Good Works proceeding from Grace are Meritorious of Pardon and Salvation Alas what are our Prayers our Sighs our Tears yea our very Blood should we spend it for Christ They are but poor imperfect things and are so far from having in them any infinite worth and value to counterbalance our sins that the defects of them add to the number of our other Transgressions They cannot all of them make one blot in the Book of God's Remembrance but may well make more Items there against us Had it been possible for Men to have quitted scores with Divine Justice by what they could do or suffer Heaven would not have been so needlessly lavish as to send Christ into the World to lead an afflicted Life and to die an accursed Death only for our Redemption and Salvation Secondly The Pardoning Grace of God is not free in respect of Christ but it cost him the price of Blood It is the Blood of the Lamb Slain from the Foundation of the World that crosseth the Debt-Book Without shedding of Blood there is no remission says the Apostle Heb. 9.22 And this is my Blood which was shed for the Remission of sins Matth. 26.28 And although possibly God might according to his absolute Sovereignty have freely remitted all the sins of all the World without any kind of Satisfaction only by a Free and Gracious Act of Mercy Yet considering that he had otherwise declared in his unalterable Word of Truth that there must be a recompence made him for all our offences it had been a wrong to his Veracity if not to his Justice to have granted the Pardon of any one sin without the intervention of a full price and satisfaction No satisfaction could be made correspondent to the wrong done to an infinite God but by an infinite Person who was God himself for had the Person been finite the Sufferings must have been Eternal otherwise they could not have been proportionable to the offence which requires an infinite Satisfaction But if the Sufferings had been Eternal Satisfaction could never have been made but would for ever have bene making unto the Justice of God and consequently our sins could never have been Pardoned And therefore God appointed to this Work of reconciling himself to fallen Man his only begotten Son God Co-equal and Co-eternal with himself and every way infinite as himself that he might be able to bear the whole Wrath of God at once and at one bitter draught drink off the whole Cup of Fury which we should have been draining by little drops to all Eternity So that Justice being satisfied in the Sufferings of Christ for the sins of those whose Persons and whose guilt he sustained upon the Cross Mercy hath now a way opened to Glorifie its Riches in their Pardon and Salvation Thus in these two Positions it appears that though the remitting of our sins be an Act of God's Free Grace and Mercy in respect of us yet it is the effect of Purchace in respect of Christ God Pardons sins to them who committed them upon their Faith and Repentance but he Pardon 's not those very sins to Christ to whom they were imputed but exacted Satisfaction from him to the very utmost rigour of Justice Hence it follows Thirdly That the Pardon of sin is not only an Act of meer free Grace and Mercy but according to the Terms of the Covenant of Grace it is also an Act of Justice in God Indeed both Mercy and Justice are concurrent in it for since by the Union of Faith we are made one Mystical Body with Christ it could not consist with the Equity of God to punish the sins of Believers in their own Persons for this would be no other than to punish them twice for the same Offence once in their surety and again in themselves Now what abundant cause of Comfort may this be to all true Believers that God's Justice as well as his Mercy shall acquit them That that Attribute of God at the Apprehension of which they were wont to tremble should interpose on their behalf and plead for them Yet through the All-sufficient Expiation and Atonement that Christ hath made for our sins this Mystery is effected and Justice it self brought over from being a formidable Adversary to be of our Party and to Plead for us Therefore the Apostle tells us 1 John 1.9 That God is Faithful and Just to forgive us our sins And St. Paul 2 Thessal 1.6 7. It is a Righteous thing with God to recompence Tribulation to them that trouble you And to you who are troubled rest with us when the Lord Jesus Christ shall be revealed from Heaven with his Mighty Angels Fourthly When God pardons he doth no longer account of us as sinners Indeed after Pardon we still retain sinful and corrupt Natures and there is that Original Pollution in us that can never be totally dislodged in this Life But yet when God pardons he looks not upon us as Sinners but as Just The Malefactor that is legally discharged either by satisfying the Law or by his Princes Grace and Favour towards him is no more reputed a Malefactor but as Just and Righteous as if he had never offended So is it with us we are both ways discharged of our guilt both by satisfying the penalty of the Law in Christ our Surety and by the Free Grace and Mercy of God who hath Sealed to us a Gracious Act of Pardon and therefore we are Just in the sight of God as if we had never sinned Fifthly Pardon of sin is one great part of our Justification Justification consists of these two parts Remission and Acceptance We have them both joyned together Ephes 1.6 7. He hath made us accepted in the Beloved in whom we have Redemption through his Blood even the forgiveness of sins Remission of sins takes away our liableness to Death Acceptation of our persons gives us a Title unto Life Now to be free from our obnoxiousness to Death and instated in a Right to Eternal Life these two Constitute a perfect Justification For to be accepted of God in Christ is no other than for God through the Righteousness and Obedience of Christ imputed to us to own and acknowledge us to have a Right to Heaven And therefore we have mention of Pardon and an Inheritance together in St. Paul's Commission to his Ministery Acts 26.18 That they may receive forgiveness of sins and an Inheritance among them that are Sanctified It is not therefore O Soul a bare negative Righteousness that God intends thee in the Pardon of thy sins it is not meerly to remove the Curse and Wrath thy sins have deserved though that alone can never sufficiently be admired but the same hand that plucks thee out of Hell by Pardon lifts thee up to Heaven by what he gives thee together with
are Tempted so most of them are not only Temptations but Sins also Indeed there is a Temptation to Sin which is a Temptation only and no Sin for so Christ himself was Tempted Matth. 4.1 He was led into the Wilderness to be Tempted of the Devil And we read there with what horrid Temptations he was assaulted even to Worship the Devil to distrust God and to destroy himself And yet as black as these Temptations were they were only Temptations and no Sins for so the Apostle tells us Heb. 4.15 He was Tempted in all things like unto us Sin only excepted And such sometimes are the Temptations wherewith the Devil assaults the Children of God horrid and hellish Temptations even to deny the very Being of God the Truth of the Scriptures the Immortality of the Soul Heaven and Hell and such bublings of Blasphemies against the very Fundamentals and Ground-works of Religion and yet if we be watchful presently to abhor and reject these injections of Satan and to cast back into his Face these his fiery Darts which he shoots into our Souls they are not our Sins though they are our Troubles but they shall be charged upon Satan to whom of right they do belong we being but only Passive and Sufferers in them But truly the most of our Temptations are Sins themselves and therefore we have great Reason and need to pray against them for they are Sins unto Sins Sins as they are irregular and inordinate Motions of our Passions and Affections and unto Sin as they tend to the bringing forth of farther Evil. And such are all the Temptations of our inbred Lusts and Corruptions when our Desires and Affections strongly encline us to those Objects which God by his express Law hath forbidden us Were it not for these sinful Temptations the others which are immediately injected by the Devil would not have any great advantage to prevail over us for by reason of our Lusts and Corruptions our Hearts always stand open to let in the Devil and were it not that these have seized on the Soul the Devil must have stood without and though he had knock'd yet would he have knock'd in vain And therefore we see in his first Temptation he deals all without doors there was no Natural Lust in our First Parents to befriend him or to betray the Soul unto him He shuts up himself therefore in the Body of a Serpent questioning with Eve about God's Commands perswades her of the desirableness of the forbidden Fruit tells her that God's Threatning was rather to fright them than to hurt them But in all these Methods of Tempting Satan had no admission into the Soul because Lust as yet had taken no possession of it but ever since the Corruption of our Natures contracted by the commission of the first Offence the Devil doth not stand to Tempt us without doors but he enters boldly as into the House of his old Friend Concupiscence nay as into his own House for the Souls of wicked Men are so called Matth. 12.29 He is by Lust let into the very inmost recesses and retirements of the Heart and can now propound Objects immediately to our Fancies and by our Fancies darken our Understandings and Affections and incline our Wills Again our Natural Corruption as it admits so it entertains and cherisheth the Temptations of the Devil A spark of Fire if there were no fewel prepared for it to seize on would presently die and vanish And so truly would Satan's Temptations that are like so many sparks of Hell Fire struck by the Devil into our Souls were it not for the prepared fuel the catching Tinder of our Lusts and Corruptions these Temptations would soon go out and expire and be like a flash of Lightning that might possibly startle us but could not burn us And thus though our Saviour Christ was grievously tempted yet it is said Joh. 14.30 The Prince of this World cometh and hath nothing in me that is the Devil could find no Sin or Corruption in him and therefore could fasten none of his Temptations upon him Thus we see what abundant reason there is for us to pray earnestly against Temptations whether they proceed from Satan or from our own Corruptions the one sort being always Sins of themselves and both sorts inclining and enducing us unto Sin But since Satan and our own Hearts prove Tempters unto us some may possibly ask how shall we know when it is Satan that Tempts us and when the Temptation ariseth from our own Corruptions The Question is nice and difficult yet because it may tend to the satisfaction of some who are curious in observing the Workings of their own Souls I Answer First There is but one kind of Temptations to Sin which have not their rise and original usually from Lust and those are Temptations to sin against the Light and Law of Nature as to the denying those Truths that are clear and evident by Natural Reason and strong Impressions on the Minds of Men as the being of a God the Immortality of the Soul future Rewards and Punishments and the like or else the doing of those things which are repugnant to the Dictates of the Law of Nature as for a Man to be Tempted to offer Violence to himself and to destroy himself It is very probable that such Temptations have not their first rise and original from our Natural Corruptions but are immediately darted into the Soul by the Devil though indeed our Corruptions too often catch at them and brood upon them till they have from such horrid Temptations as these conceived some horrid and monstrous Sin in the Soul Such injections as these are Balls of Wild-Fire kindled in Hell and cast into the Soul by the Devil and are not our Sins any farther than they are entertained by us and consented unto Secondly As for those Temptations which have a greater compliance to the corrupt tendency and inclinations of our sinful Natures which are not to such unnatural Sins as the other it is very hard if not impossible to Judge whether they originally proceed from Satan or from our own inbred Corruptions usually they both joyn together if Satan first inject them usually our Lusts nurse and foster them or if our wicked Hearts be the first Parents of them usually Satan inforceth them and by additional recruits of Temptations makes them more prevalent and permanent and by fair and specious colours makes them more plausible and taking And certainly there being such an innumerable Company of Evil Spirits that notwithstanding the great Work and Employment they have to do in the World yet Hell could spare a whole Legion of them to Garrison in one possessed Man we may not doubt but that they are continually busie prying into every one of our Tempers And as long experience hath made them very sagacious in guessing at the first motions of our Hearts by the alterations they find in our Fancies or the Humours of our Bodies of which
thine own evil Conscience that haunts and terrifies thee When thou readest that dreadful Threatning Ezek. 18.4 The Soul that sinneth it shall die there were nothing of terror in it did not thy guilty Conscience witness against thee that thou art the Man 'T is this that turns and levels all God's Artillery against thee Get therefore a Conscience pacified upon good Grounds and the very threatning of the Word will speak to thee not so much terror from the dreadfulness of the Wrath and Condemnation denounced as Joy that thou hast escaped it Thirdly It may be the Word of God by working in thee the Spirit of fear is preparing thee for the Spirit of Adoption for that usually ushers in this We find the Gaoler trembling before we find him rejoycing There were mighty and rending Winds Earth-quakes and Fire all Terrible before these came the still voice in which God was 1 Kings 19.12 So God in Convictions many times prepares the way by Thunders and Earth-quakes by the Thundering of his Word and the Trembling of our own Consciences before he comes to us in the still and sweet voice of Peace and Comfort And certainly they are much more afraid than hurt whom God by his Terrours thus frights into Heaven But Thirdly Some may still say their Fears are so strong that they will drive them into Desperation or Distraction if they longer pore on those dreadful things the Scripture contains I answer there is not one line or syllable in the whole Book of God that gives the least ground for Despair Nay there are the most supporting Comforts a poor Fearful Trembling Soul can desire Come unto me all that are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest Come unto me and I will in no wise cast you out return unto the Lord and he will abundantly Pardon Isaiah 55.7 I even I am he that blots out and forgets your Sins and innumerable such like Now if Men will only take the Sword of the Spirit to wound them and not also the Balm of the Spirit to heal them they may through their own fault especially when they read the Scriptures with the Devil's Commentaries fret themselves into Despair Fourthly Some may say certainly it cannot be thus necessary that the word of Christ should dwell thus richly and abundantly in all Christians It is requisite indeed for Ministers whose calling it is to Teach and Instruct others that they should have this abundance of Scripture dwelling in them but for us who are to receive the Law at their Mouth a competent knowledge in the Fundamentals of Religion may well be sufficient We know that Christ is the Son of God that he came into the World to save Sinners and that if we would be saved by him we must believe in him and such chief points of Christianity which are sufficient to Salvation To this I answer First God may well expect a more plentiful measure of the Word to dwell in Ministers because it is not only their General but particular calling to peruse and study it There is therefore a twofold fullness a fullness of the private Christian and a fullness of the treasurer or steward to whose charge the Oracles of God are committed and who is to communicate Knowledge to the People This being the Minister's Office it is his Duty especially to abound and be inriched in the knowledge of the Scripture But Secondly Wherefore must the word of Christ dwell so richly in Ministers is it for themselves only or is it to instruct their Flock What And can it be necessary for them to Teach and yet unnecessary for you to Learn Are they bound to search into the depth of Gospel Mysteries to inform you of them and is it enough for you only to know the first Principles and Rudiments Certainly whatsoever God requires the Minister to Teach that he requires you to Learn Now would you your selves Judge the Minister to have sufficiently discharged his Duty that should only in the general preach that we are all Sinners that Christ the Son of God came into the World to save us that the Glory of Heaven and the Torments of Hell shall be the rewards of Obedience or Disobedience If these few absolutely necessary and fundamental Truths were all you might well think the Ministry to be a very easie or a very needless Office If then it is our Duty to reveal to you the whole Counsel of God and to withhold nothing from you of all those Mysteries which the Scripture contains whereof some give Life others Light some are Vital others Ornamental you cannot with Reason but conclude that if we are obliged to Teach these things you also are obliged to learn and know them Thirdly It is a most destructive Principle that many have through Sloath and Laziness taken up That a little knowledge will suffice to bring them to Heaven Certainly God would never have revealed so many deep and profound Mysteries in his Word if it were not necessary they should be known and believed Shall we think all the rest of the Bible superfluous except a few plain practical Texts What God hath recorded in the Scripture is written for our Instruction 'T is true if we have not the means of instruction nor are in a possibility of attaining it a less measure of knowledge answered by a Conscientious practice may suffice for our Salvation But for us we have line upon line and precept upon precept for us to satisfie our selves with a few of the common Principles slighting the rest as nice and unnecessary points for us to neglect knowledge argues defect of Grace For wheresoever true Grace is there will be a most earnest endeavour to grow daily in both and yet multitudes every where even of those who abhorr grosser Sins as Swearing Drunkenness and the like yet take up with a few Notions of Religion that all are Sinners and all must perish unless Christ save them c. This they knew as soon as they knew any thing and more than this they will not know They will not trouble their heads with any farther discoveries nor look deep into the Mysteries of Godliness contenting themselves that they have as they think knowledge enough to bring them to Heaven Let me tell them that though where there is not means of knowledge a little may suffice for Salvation yet where God doth afford plentiful means the knowledge of these very things becomes necessary to them which others might safely be ignorant of This is in answer to the 4th Objection Fifthly Some may object that they have found by Experience that the study of Scripture hath many times made them the worse it hath alarmed their Lusts and put them in an Uproar Such and such Suits were quiet till they read in the Word a command against them therefore they are discouraged and think it best to forbear the study of the Scripture since they find that by forbidding Sin it only rowseth and awakens it
First I answer First this was St. Paul's very Case Rom. 7.8 Sin taking occasion by the Command wrought in me all manner of Concupiscence now this effect is merely accidental and is not to be imputed unto the Holy Word of God but to the wicked Heart of Man which takes an hint so desperately corrupt is it from God's forbidding Sin to put it self in Mind of committing it Secondly Thou complainest that the Word exciteth to Corruptions but it doth it no otherwise than the Sun draws Smoak and stink out of a Dunghill It doth increase but unhappily excite them The very same Lusts lay hid in their Hearts before There they lay like so many Vipers and Serpents asleep till the Light and Warmth of the Word makes them stir and crawl about And this Advantage thou mayest make of it that when thy Corruptions swarm thick about thee upon the disturbance the Law of God hath made among them thou mayest thence see what a wicked Heart and Nature thou hast how much Filth and Mud there lyeth at the bottom of it which presently riseth upon the first stirring This may make thee vile in thine own Eyes and deeply humbled under the sad and serious Consideration of thy indwelling Sin 'T is the very use the Apostle makes in the same Case Rom. 7.24 O wretched Man that I am who shall deliver me from the Body of this Death When Humors are in Motion we soon perceive what is the state of our Body and when Corruptions are once stirred we may thereby easily know the State and Condition of our Souls Thirdly The same Word that doth thus occasionally stir up Sin is the best means to beat it down You may perceive by this there is somewhat in the Word that is extreamly contrary to their Sins since they do so rise and arm against it their great Enemy is upon them and this alarm that they take is but before their overthrow It may be the Mud is only stirred that it might be cast out and their Hearts cleansed from it Be not discouraged therefore for there is no Means in the World so apposite to the destruction and subduing of Sin as the Scripture though at first it may seem instead of subduing of Sins to strengthen them Sixthly Many are discouraged from studying the Scriptures because their Memories are so treacherous and unfaithfull they can retain nothing when they have read the Scripture and would recollect what they have read they can give no account of it either to themselves or others Nothing abides upon them and therefore they think it were as good give over as thus continually pour Water into a Sieve and inculcate Truths upon such a leaky Memory where all runs out This is indeed the Complaint of many But First This should put thee on a more frequent and diligent study of the Scripture than discourage thee from it More pains will supply this Defect thou must the oftner prompt and the oftner examine thy Self the more forgetful thou art Memory is the Soul's Steward and if thou findest it unfaithful call it the oftner to account Be still following it with Line upon Line and Precept upon Precept and continually instill somewhat into it A Vessel set under the fall of a Spring cannot leak faster than it is supplyed A constant dropping of this Heavenly Doctrine into the Memory will keep it that though it be leaky yet it never shall be empty Secondly Scripture Truths when they do not inrich the Memory yet they may purifie the Heart We must not measure the Benefit we receive from the Word according to what of it remains but according to what effect it leaves behind Lightning you know than which nothing sooner vanisheth away yet it often breaks and melts the hardest and most firm Bodies in its sudden Passage Such is the irresistable force of the Word the Spirit often darts it through us it seems but like a flash and gone and yet it may break and melt down our hard Hearts before it when it leaves no impression at all upon our Memories I have heard of one who returning from an affecting Sermon highly commended it to some and being demanded what he remembred of it answered truly I remember nothing at all but only while I heard it it made me resolve to live better than ever I have done and so by God's Grace I will Here was now a Sermon lost to the Memory but not to the Affections To the same Purpose I have somewhere read a story of one that complained to an aged Holy-Man that he was much discouraged from reading the Scripture because his Memory was so slippery he could fasten nothing upon it that he read The old Hermet for so as I remember he was described bid him take an earthen Pitcher and fill it with Water when he had done it he bid him empty it again and wipe it clean that nothing should remain in it which when the other had done and wondred to what this tended now saith he though there be nothing of the Water remaining to it yet the Pitcher is cleaner than it was before so though thy Memory retain nothing of the word thou readest yet thy Heart is the cleaner for its very passage through Thirdly Never fear your Memory only pray for good and pious Affections Affection to the truths we read or hear makes the Memory retentive of them Most Mens Memories are like Jett or Electrical Bodies that attract and hold-fast only straws or Feathers or such vain and light things discourse to them the Affairs of the World or some idle and romantick story their Memories retain this as faithfully as if it were ingraven on leaves of Brass Whereas the great important truths of the Gospel the great Mysteries of Heaven and concernments of Eternity leave no more impression upon them than words on the Air in which they are spoken whence is this but only that the one sort work themselves into the Memory through the interest they have got in the Affections which the other cannot do Had we but the same delight in Heavenly Objects did we but receive the Truth in the love of it and mingle it with Faith in the hearing this would fix that Volatileness and Flittiness of our Memories and make every truth as indelible as it is necessary That 's in Answer to the 6th Objection Seventhly others complain that the Scripture is obscure and difficult to be understood they may as well and with as good success attempt to spie out what lies at the Centre of the Earth as search into the deep and hidden Mysteries which no humane understanding can fathom or comprehend And this discourageth them To this I answer First 't is no wonder if there be such profound depths in the word of God since it is a System and Compendium of his Infinite and unsearchable Wisdom that Wisdom which from the beginning of the World hath been hid in God Those deep Truths which your understanding cannot reach
may persuade you to a diligent search and perusal of the Scriptures The Jews indeed were so exact or rather Superstitious in this that he was judged a despiser of those Sacred Oracles who did not readily know how often every Letter of the Alphabet occurred in them This preciseness God hath made use of to deliver down his word to us unvaried and uncorrupted It is not such a scrupulous search of the Scripture I now exhort you to but as God hath left it to us a rich Depositum a dear pledge of his Love and care so we should diligently attend to a rational and profitable study of it There are but two things in the general that commend any writing to us either that it discovers knowledge or directs practice that it informs the Judgment or reforms the Life Both of these are eminently the Characters of this Book of God And therefore David tells us Psal 19.7 The Law of God converts the Soul and makes wise the simple It is a light not only to our heads but it is a Lamp unto our Feet and a light unto our paths Psal 119.105 Let us consider it as to both First In point of knowledge as it perfects the understanding and so it will appear in sundry particulars how excellent a study it is For First The Scripture discovers unto us the knowledge of those truths that the most improved natural Reason could never sift out and are intelligible only by Divine Revelation God hath Composed two Books by the diligent study of which we may come to the knowledge of himself The Book of the Creatures and the Book of the Scriptures The Book of the Creatures is written in those great Letters of Heaven and Earth the Air and Sea and by these we may spell out somewhat of God He made them for our instruction as well as our service There is not a Creature that God hath breathed abroad upon the face of the Earth but it Reads us Lectures of his infinite Power and Wisdom So that it is no absurdity to say that they are all the Works of his mouth so they are all the works of his Hands The whole World is a speaking workmanship Rom. 1.20 The invisible things of God are clearly seen by the things that are made even his eternal Power and Godhead And indeed when we seriously consider how God hath poised the Earth in the midst of the Air and the whole World in the midst of a vast and boundless nothing how he hath hung out those glorious lights of Heaven the Sun the Moon and Stars and made paths in the Sky for their several courses how he hath laid the Sea on heaps and so girt it in that it may possibly overlook but not overflow the Land when we view the Variety Harmony and Law of the Creation our Reason must needs be very short if we cannot from these collect the infinite Wisdom Power and Goodness of the Creator So much of God as belong to these two great Attributes of Creator and Governour of the World the Book of Nature may plainly discover to us But then there are other more retired and reserved Notions of God other truths that nearly concern our selves and our eternal Salvation to know and believe which nature could never give the least glimpse to discover What Signature is there stampt upon any of the Creatures of a Trinity in Unity of the eternal Generation or temporal Carnation of the Son of God What Creature could inform us of our first fall and guilt contracted by it Where can we find the Copy of the Covenant of Works or of grace printed upon any of the Creatures All the great Sages of the World though they were Nature's Secretaries and ransack'd its abstrusest mysteries yet all their Learning and Knowledge could not discover the Sacred Mystery of a Crucified Saviour These are truths which Nature is so far from searching out that it can scarce receive them when revealed 1. Corinth 2.14 The natural Man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God neither can he know them because they are Spiritually discerned The light that can reveal these must break immediately from Heaven it self And so it did upon the Prophets Evangelists and Apostles the Pen-men of the Holy Scriptures And if it were their singular Privilege that the Holy Ghost should descend into their breasts and so possess them with Divine inspirations that what they spake or wrote became Oracular how little less is ours since the Scriptures reveal to us the very same truths which the Spirit revealed to them God heretofore spake in them and now he speaks by them unto us Their Revelations are become ours the only difference is that what God taught them by extraordinary inspiration the very same truths he teacheth us in the Scripture by the ordinary illumination of his Spirit Here therefore whilest we diligently converse in the Book of God we enjoy the privilege of Prophets The same word of God which came unto them comes also unto us and that without those severe preparations and strong agonies which sometimes they underwent before God would inspire them with the knowledge of his Heavenly truth That is the first Motive and Argument Secondly The knowledge which the Scripture teacheth is for the matter of it the most sublime and losty in the World All other sciences are but poor and beggarly Elements if compared with this What doth the Naturalist but only busie himself in digging a little drossie knowledge out of the Entrails of the Earth The Astronomer who ascends highest mounts no higher than the Coelestial Bodies the Stars and Planets which are but the out-works of Heaven But the Scripture pierceth much farther and lets us into Heaven it self There it discovers the Majesty and Glory of God upon his Throne the Eternal Son of God sitting at his right hand making a prevailing and Authoritative intercession for us The glittering train of Cherubims and Seraphims an innumerable company of Angels and the Spirits of Just Men made perfect So that indeed when you have this Book laid open before you you have Heaven it self and all the inconceivable glories of it laid open to your view What can be more sublime than the nature of God And yet here we have it so plainly described by all its most glorious Attributes and Perfections that the Scripture doth but beam forth light to an Eye of Faith whereby it may be inabled to see him who is invisible But if we consider those Gospel Mysteries the Scripture relates the Hypostatical Union of the Divine and Humane Nature in Christ's incarnation the Mystical Union of our persons to his by our believing that the Son of God should be Substituted in the stead of guilty Sinners that he who knew no sin should be made a Sacrifice for sin and the Justice of God become reconciled to Man through the blood of God these are Mysteries so infinitely profound as are enough to puzzle a whole College of
of our Selves Man that busies himself in knowing all things else is of nothing more ignorant than of himself the Eye that beholds other things cannot see its own shape and so the Soul of Man whereby he understands other objects is usually ignorant of its own Concernments Now as the Eye that cannot see it self directly may see it self reflexively in a Glass so God hath given us his Scripture which St. James compares to a Glass James 1.23 and holds this before the Soul wherein is represented our true State and Idea There is a four-fold state of Man that we could never have attained to know but by the Scriptures His state of Integrity His state of Apostacy His state of Restitution His state of Glory The Scripture alone can reveal to us what we were in our Primitive Constitution Naturally Holy bearing the Image and Similitude of God and enjoying his Love free from all inward perturbations or outward Miseries having all the Creatures subject to us and what is much more our selves What we were in our state of Apostacy or Destitution despoiled of all our Primitive Excellencies dispossess'd of all the Happiness we enjoy'd and of all hopes of any for the future lyable every Moment to the revenge of Justice and certain once to feel it What we are in our state of Restitution through Grace begotten again to a lively hope Adopted into the Family of Heaven Redeem'd by the Blood of Christ Sanctified and Sealed by the Holy Spirit restored to the Favour and Friendship of God recovering the initials of his Image upon our Souls here on Earth and expecting the perfection of it in Heaven What we shall be in our final State of Glory cloathed with Light Crowned with Stars inebriated with pure spiritual Joys We shall see God as he is know him as we are known by him love him ardently converse with him eternally yea a state it will be so infinitely happy that 't will leave us nothing to hope for This Four-fold state of Man the Scripture doth evidently express Now these are such things as could never have entred into our Hearts to have imagined had not the word of God described them to us and thereby instructed us in the knowledge of our selves as well as of God and Christ Now let us put these six particulars together The Scripture instructs us in the knowledge of such things as are intelligible only by divine Revelation it teacheth us the most sublime and lofty Truths 't is a most inexhaustible Fountain of Knowledge the more we draw the more still springs up it teaches that Knowledge that is necessary to Salvation It is of undoubted certainty and perpetual Truth And Lastly it informs us in the knowledge of our Selves and certainly if there be any thirst in you after Knowledge there needs no more be spoken to perswade you to the diligent study of the Scripture which is a rich Store and Treasury of all Wisdom and Knowledge Thus we have seen how the Scriptures inform the Judgment Let us now briefly see how they reform the Life and what practical influence they have upon the Souls of Men. Now here the word of God hath a mighty Operation and that in sundry particulars First This is that word that convinceth and humbles the stoutest and proudest Sinners There are two sorts of secure Sinners Those who vaunt it in the Confidence of their own Righteousness and those who are secure through an insensibility of their own Wickedness Both these the word when it is set home with Power convinceth humbles and brings to the Dust It despoils the Self-Justitiary of all that false Righteousness he once boasted of and trusted to I was alive once without the Law saith St. Paul but when the Commandment came sin revived and I dyed Rom. 7.9 It awakens and alarms the senseless seared Sinner How many have there been that have scorned God and despised Religion whom yet one curse or threat of this word hath made to tremble and fall down before the convincing Majesty and Authority of it Secondly This is that word that sweetly comforts and raiseth them after their Dejections All other Applications to a wounded Spirit are improper and impertinent 'T is only Scripture Consolation that can ease it The leaves of this Book are like the leaves of that Tree Rev. 22. which were for the healing of the Nations The same Weapon that wounds must here work the cure Thirdly This is that word that works the mighty change upon the heart in Renovation Take a Man that runs on in vile and desperate Courses that sells himself to do Iniquity and commits all manner of Wickedness with Greediness and makes use of all the Arguments that reason can suggest these seldom reclaim any from their Debaucheries Or if in some few they do reform the Life yet they can never change the heart But now that which no other means can effect the Word of God can Psal 19.7 The Law of God is perfect converting the Soul Fourthly This is that word that strengthens and arms the People of God to endure the greatest temporal Evils only in hope of that future reward which it punisheth Fifthly This is that word that contains in it such a Collection of Rules and Duties that whosoever observes and obeys shall in the end infallibly obtain everlasting life Though I can but just mention these Heads unto you yet there is enough in them to perswade you to be diligent in the Scriptures In them saith our Saviour ye think to have Eternal Life We are all of us guilty Malefactors but God hath been pleased to afford us the Mercy of the Book And what shall we not so much as read for our Lives This is that Book according to which we must either stand or fall be acquitted or condemned Eternally The unalterable Sentence of the last day will pass upon us as it is here recorded in this Scripture Here we may before-hand know our Doom and what will become of us to all Eternity He that believeth shall be saved but he that believeth not shall be damned 'T is said Rev. 20.12 That when the dead stood before God to be Judged the Books were opened That is the Book of Conscience and the Book of the Scripture Be perswaded to open this Book and to judge your selves out of it before the last day 'T is not a sealed Book to you you may there read what your present State is and foretell what your future will be If it be a State of Sin and Wrath search farther there are Directions how you may change this wretched State for a better If it be a State of Grace and Favour there are Rules how to preserve you in it 'T is a word suited to all Persons all Occasions all Exigencies It informs the Ignorant strengthens the Weak comforts the Disconsolate supports the Afflicted relieves the Tempted resolves the Doubtful directs all to those ways which lead to endless Happiness where as the Word of God hath dwelt richly in us so we shall dwell for ever gloriously with God FINIS